


Birthday Wish

by My_Heart_Is_Not_Cold



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, As it should be, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, I call this:, Inspired by Once Upon a Time (TV), Kid Fic, Lena Luthor Has a Crush on Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Lena Luthor is an amazing mother and Liam is a precious little bean, Single Parent Lena Luthor, Slow Burn Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, also Lillian Luthor isn't a terrorist and is an okay mother so this is very AU, but not in the way you think, but not reeeeally enemies, but technically science fiction because the science in this is not real, just go with it, more like inspired by Swan Queen... sort of, not actually science fiction, one day Ao3 is gonna post my tags in order, that's the whole thing, the surprise child au, there's no Disney characters or forced heterosexuality or anything, they have a child together and they never met
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-05-15 05:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 32,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Heart_Is_Not_Cold/pseuds/My_Heart_Is_Not_Cold
Summary: Kara didn’t know what she expected to find when she opened her door, but a pair of bright blue eyes looking up at her eagerly was definitely not on her list of possibilities.“Hello?” Kara greeted confused. “Are you lost?”“Are you Kara Danvers?” The boy asked instead.“Yes…?” she said carefully.“My name is Liam,” he introduced himself with a cute smile, “I’m your son.”Kara almost choked. “You’re my what now?”Or,When Kara wished to not spend her birthday alone she didn't expect a fully grown human child to materialize at her door claiming to be her son, nor for that child's other parent to be Lena freaking Luthor, but sometimes life can be crazy like that.





	1. The Birthday Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara makes a wish to a cupcake and gets more than what she bargained for. Lena gets the worst news a parent could get. A scheme is set in motion. Mystery ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeello!
> 
> So I've been working on this story for while, a very long while, and I today I felt like I just had to post it. I'm very much in love with this, and with my beautiful son Liam, so I would like to share it with all of you.
> 
> Let's have a little suspension of disbelief and pretend it is possible for a child to be made out of two women's DNA and for that child to be male. I wanted to use the whole Henry-Emma-Regina situation, but I couldn't see Kara as a woman who would put her baby to adoption, and this fact will play out in the future, so this happened.
> 
> A lot of this is based somewhat more on the comics, like the locations and Cadmus's purpose and the people, but it's not super obscure that you need to have prior knowledge of anything to understand. Just quick geographic note, Metropolis is in the state of New York and both Gotham and Blüdhaven are in New Jersey, it's not all that important, I just wanted to let you know. Blüdhaven a sister city of Gotham, said to be poorer and to have a worse crime rate than Gotham, it's where Dick Grayson/Nightwing lives.
> 
> So I'm trying a new format here, because I wanted to keep a sort of suspense, and because in writing you can't have the same effect of a commercial break as a tv show does, so it goes back and forth for the entire chapter, but I hope it's not too confusing. :D
> 
> Anyways, there was so much I wanted to say about this, because I just truly love this story so much, but I'm just gonna stay quiet.

 

Lena Luthor was a busy woman.

Beyond busy, actually.

She was a businesswoman, CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation, in fact, one of the world’s largest, most diversified multinational conglomerates, employing directly or indirectly nearly two-thirds of Metropolis alone. She was a scientist leading several groundbreaking researchers in varied fields of study such as aerospace engineering, biotechnology, robotics, security and many others. She was a philanthropist and the face of several charity organizations and beneficent events. She was a public figure, very much so, due to her notorious family and business, with media outlets wanting to capture her every step. And she was, before anything else and more importantly, a single mother to a beautiful eight-year-old boy who was her entire life and world.

So it was needless to say that Lena Luthor had quite the eventful life.

That particular Friday, Lena had her schedule so full she barely had time to breathe. She left home early and she would have to stay at the office late. She really missed her son, she didn’t get to see him up before she left for work and she would get home way past dinner time, maybe even bedtime, he would be taken care of by a nanny, but spending time with her son was the best part of Lena’s day and she was a little sad the entire day missing him.

A great many hours of that day was spent supervising research in the labs and helping out with the development of LuthorCorp’s latest security system, which meant she didn’t get the chance to check her phone until way off in the evening.

It was the first thing she did as soon as she emerged from the lab, check her messages. It was nearing dinner time and she planned on calling to hear her son’s voice before going back to work. What she saw when she unlocked her phone, however, was a mother’s worst nightmare.

\-------

 

Kara Danvers hated being alone. She felt like she was fated to be so.

Her parents died when she was young, she was adopted by the Danvers, she bonded with the parents really fast, especially the father Jeremiah. But then Jeremiah, who was a police officer, died in the line of duty.

In school, she was always a loner, the weird girl, the adopted girl, and it didn’t help that her adopted sister hated her being around most of the time. When they finally started getting closer, they both moved out for college. Kara got a full ride scholarship to the Blue Valley University, in Nebraska, with her running, while Alex was halfway across the country in Gotham.

While in college, Kara was only a four-hour drive away from Smallville, the birthplace of her cousin Clark, and where his parents still lived, and she spent her weekends with them because they needed help around the farm since Clark moved away to Metropolis. They treated her like a daughter and spoiled her when she was around, and she even moved in with them after college for a while. But living with her elderly aunt and uncle didn’t really help Kara feel less of a loner, as much as she adored them.

Eventually Kara got a job in Blüdhaven, the neighbor city of Gotham, and she was living near her sister for the first time in years. But then Alex met a girl and started dating, and Kara would see less and less of her, and then Alex and Maggie got married, and Maggie was transferred to National City, so Kara was left alone again, living across the country from her sister.

So she got used to being alone, as much as she hated it. Sure Kara had friends, and she had her job at Blüdhaven Times, which she loved, but there was always something missing for her. And the day she always felt the loneliest was her birthday.

It just so happened to be her birthday, and Kara strolled down the cold and damp streets of Avalon Heights, tightening her coat around herself to conserve some warmth. Kara reached the first convenience store and decided that, with all the cold and the haze of the late evening, it wasn’t worth it to look for somewhere else just for a little silly tradition.

When Kara got back to her apartment she was cold and tired and her hair was a wet mess, so tradition would have to wait until after she got a hot shower.

She knew she was stalling, but she let herself soak in the shower for as long as she could take before she started feeling squeamish and had to step off.

And so, clean and relaxed, Kara padded her way to the kitchen on socked feet and placed the single cupcake she got at the convenience store on a plate and pressed the candle gently into it. Kara lit up the candle and leaned forward, resting her crossed arms over the kitchen island and her chin against her forearms. She watched the flame dance in front of her face.

“Happy birthday, Kara,” she whispered before closing her eyes and blowing the candle. She tried not to make a wish because it would not come true anyways, but she couldn’t help but think ‘I wish I didn’t have to spend my birthday alone’.

It happened almost instantly, no sooner was the candle out and the doorbell was ringing before Kara could even open her eyes.

Kara eyed the candle carefully as if it was its fault, before she straightened herself up and moved to the door.

Kara didn’t know what she expected to find when she opened her door, but what she was met with was definitely not it.

\-------

 

William Alexander… no, he hated being called that. That’s what his mother called him when she was disappointed in him for doing something he shouldn’t; she was rarely ever mad, she was a very calm and kind woman, but when she called him William Alexander he knew he was in trouble. His grandmother called him William, and he hated that too, it wasn’t warm and kind like his mother, it was formal and cold like a doctor or a school principal. And that was a good way to describe his grandmother, she was, in fact, a doctor, and she was a very serious woman, strict, and sometimes when she smiled it made him uncomfortable, but she was nice with him in her own way. He knew she liked him, and he liked the way she smiled at him when he beat her at chess or when he explained to her a new thing he learned. She’d say he was smart like his uncle and he’d shake his head and say he was smart like his mother.

He introduced himself as Liam and insisted everyone call him that.

But the name he truly loved was when his mother called him Lillo.

That’s what she called him most times when they were alone. And he called her mama. Unless he was scared or in pain, which also made him scared, or crying, then he called her mommy.

Liam’s mother was his best friend, and she was the most beautiful and intelligent woman he had ever met in his entire eight years of life. She was kind and funny and she taught him everything about the world, about science and history and music and about respecting people. They’d read together and play games and watch movies. His favorite books to read together were the ones with magic and adventures, and he liked the movies and shows about space, and so did his mother. He really liked when she taught him how things worked, and when they’d build or fix things together, like cars that didn’t work anymore and the things she’d let him take apart to put back together, and the robots and clocks and many other things that they would build from pieces of other things. He didn’t know the name of a lot of things, but he knew what to do when tools were put in his hands.

She was his hero, and he wanted to be just like her when he grew up.

He didn’t totally know what his mother did exactly, but he knew she helped people and she created new things to help people even more, she also did a lot of parties to make money to help people who were sick or lost or hungry, people that didn’t have what they had. He thought it was weird that parties could make money, but his mother explained that the people at the party would give money if the party was good enough and if her speech was good and if she made them happy and talked to as many of them as possible, the success of the party was measured by how much money it made.

His mother also made people happy and she’d take him to visit the children’s hospital that had their name every few weeks. They’d play with the children who were sick to make them happy and she’d read for them and kids would give her drawings and letters that she’d keep with as much care as if it was something he gave her. She told him once she paid for everything the hospital needed and worked a lot to create new things so that the hospital could treat the kids better.

 He knew his mother was famous as well, and people kept trying to take her picture alone or with him, and that bothered her a lot because she didn’t like that people invaded his space and made him uncomfortable or followed him and made him unsafe. He saw his mother a lot on tv and magazines. His godmother told him people liked to know what his mother thought about things and how her brain worked, which is why she talked with so many people to go with the photos on the magazines.

And his mother was the CEO of the family’s company, which was like the leader, everyone’s boss, everyone worked for her.

So he understood that she was very important and busy and had to work a lot, but that didn’t make him less sad when she had to work late.

It was just him and his mother. She had him alone and she raised him alone, and she never hid from his questions, answered all of them without complaining. She made sure to explain to him how she wanted him so much that she asked her mother to help make him, with the DNA of someone they never met that gave their DNA to help people like his mother who wanted to have a baby alone or couldn’t have babies without the help. He knew how babies were made, and how it involved either science or two people to kiss a lot while naked and touch each other in ways that only adults could. His mother happened to use science, which for him, was a lot cooler and less gross than the other way.

He never felt like his mother wasn’t enough for him or feel sad because he didn’t have an extra parent like most people he knew, the only people he knew with only one parent were him, his godmother and his godmother’s daughter, Ruby. But that never bothered him.

What he wanted, though, was to know how the person who was technically his other parent was. He knew it was a woman, but he wanted to know how she looked, and if he looked like her, if she liked pink pancakes or blue better, if she liked pasta and soup and if she could play sports and speak many languages. If she liked playing chess, or video games or instruments, if she was a good singer and if she could curl her tongue like he and his mother could. He wanted to know if she was kind like his mother, or smart, or if she liked to help people as well. He wanted to know everything about her, and he wanted her to know him.

He always had a little dream of having his parents together. Not because he felt the lack of his second parent, but because he wanted to know what it felt like, and how different would it be to be parented by two people. He wanted his parents to be together because that’s what he saw on movies, and he wanted his mother to be happy and in his mind, being with his second parent, as in dating or being married, would make her happy. Maybe his other mother could help her be less busy or even help more people, or both.

But he had to meet his other mother first; and make her meet his mother.

\-------

 

Kara had to admit sometimes she made her situation worse than it really was.

It’s not like she was completely abandoned by her sister. Alex was usually very busy with her work, but she always made time to video chat Kara at least once a week and to send Kara many gifts through the mail on her birthday. But she still missed having her sister close to her, being able to hug her. Kara liked hugs.

This year was no different.

“Happy birthday, baby girl,” Alex said happily on Kara’s phone screen.

“Hey, Alex!” Kara greeted. “Where’s Maggie?”

“Shit, thanks, sis, love you too,” Alex feigned offense.

“Sorry, it’s just that she usually is there with you.” Kara shrugged.

Alex made a face, a hint of irritation. “Yeah, she’s… she’s been busy.”

Kara frowned. “What was that?” she asked accusingly.

“What was what?”

“That! That face you made,” Kara said glaring at her phone camera. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing is going on,” Alex said defensively.

“Alex!”

“Kar, I really don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“Okay, yeah, sorry.”

There was an awkward silent moment before Alex spoke again.

“Hey, I see you got my presents!” Alex said, noticing the sweater Kara was wearing. “You know, that’s handmade.”

Kara looked down at herself, at the dark blue woolen sweater covered in little white dots making constellations with a yellow comet crossing the chest. “There’s no way you made this.”

“Uh, I said it was handmade. I didn’t say _I_ made it.”

Kara giggled. “Well, it’s great either way. I love it. And everything else. Thank you.”

They both smiled at each other.

“You know I’m really sorry I couldn’t be there again this year.”

“I know,” Kara agreed. “You’re super busy stitching people up and all in the happy sunny city,” she teased.

“Hey! Just because it’s not crazy like the twin goth cities doesn’t mean we have it easy,” Alex protested.

“My city isn’t goth!” Kara said back. “It’s just… a demotion from hell.”

 “Wow. Dramatic much?”

“It’s part of my charm.” Kara winked. “You know, it’s a bit ironic that I’m the one who lives in the dark and gloomy place.”

“As ironic as it is that I’m the one who lives in the sunny place.”

Kara laughed. “See?”

“So, you doing anything today?”

Kara shrugged, her smile visibly dimming. “Dick and Steph are insisting on taking me out to a bar. I’ll indulge then, but we both know I won’t last much. Especially if they try to set me up with someone, they’ve been bothering me with that for a while, decided I have to date more because apparently, I’m lonely.”

“I mean,” Alex said slowly.

Kara groaned. “Oh, not you too.”

“What? It’s been a while since Adam.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “There was James.”

“Please, that barely lasted a minute. You know mom still bothers me about you not dating enough. As if it was my fault. From across the country!”

Kara laughed. “I just wish everyone would get off my back already. I can’t will the right person into existence.”

“The right person,” Alex mocked. “Kara, you just need to get laid.”

Kara gasped loudly. “Oh my god, Alex.”

“What?” Alex fakes innocence. “How could I say something so controversial yet so brave?”

“I’m gonna hang up now.”

Alex laughed again. “Okay then. I’ll let you go, Kar. Talk to you later.”

“Ah,” Kara said, not even trying to hide her disappointment, she didn’t really mean it. “You don’t have to…”

“I have some paperwork to do,” Alex explained. “You go have fun.”

“Okay. Say hi to Maggie for me.”

Alex grimaced at that but recovered fast with a smile again. “I will.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too, baby girl. Happy birthday.”

Kara turned off her phone and let out a big sigh. She was back to being alone.

She lied to Alex. Her friends, Dick and Stephany were out of town for a gala event Dick’s rich father had put on. Dick being the oldest son and Stephany the honorary daughter, had to attend. They apologized for missing her birthday, but it really didn’t change the fact that she was spending her birthday alone.

Kara got up from the kitchen stool and made her way to the couch, throwing herself into it carelessly and desolated. Another birthday without her sister. If Alex was there, they’d go out for a few rounds at a karaoke bar, and then go back home to watch Netflix and cuddle on the couch, making sure to get a cupcake for each on the way back with a single candle for Kara.

Kara got up in a jump. Just because Alex wasn’t there didn’t mean she had to give up her birthday cupcake. She got her coat and walked out of the loft.

\-------

 

Liam’s plan was set in motion when he found a folder in his mother’s home office.

The folder had a file on a woman.

Donor number 38752. 1,73cm tall, 59kg, born on September 22 on Kansas. Right-handed, light skin, freckles and easily tanned, dimples, blue eyes, blonde wavy hair, wear glasses, was adopted, is Jewish. Was really good at school, graduated in linguistics, astronomy, and arts in college, with a minor on journalism. Good in math, science history and reading. Spoke eight languages, was a good singer, played the guitar and piano, painted and did sculptures, was good at sports such as running, soccer, swimming, softball, volleyball, and tennis.

There was a lot of information on the woman, many pages of it, but Liam only read the ones that had what he wanted to know, the two pages on characteristics and habits, the rest was a bunch of complicated words that made no sense to him such as cholesterol and hemophilia, so he stopped reading.

Liam was a smart boy, all that information along with the word donor in every page, he deduced this was his other mother.

 But what called his attention the most was the first page, actually not even a first page, the page was separate, as if not part of the others, stuck to the flap of the folder with a paper clip, the page that had the name and the address of his other mother.

She lived in Blüdhaven, which wasn’t very far from Metropolis. The engines started spinning inside his head. Liam took out his phone and snapped pictures of everything he thought was important and put the folder back in place before running out of the office and into the library before his mother could get home.

The plan was easy, put the address he found on the internet, find a ‘how to arrive’ and go there to meet her.

The easy plan did have a few smaller details that he needed to work on, like how to actually travel. He’d never traveled alone before, not that he was afraid, he had a goal set, but he still didn’t know what transportation he’d use, and how to go without his mother knowing.

A solution showed up when his mother told him she’d have to work late on Friday. It was the perfect time to go. And he did come up with a plan for the transport part. He knew where his mother kept money for when they ordered food, he’d take that, then call an Uber from the nanny’s phone during the time that he was supposed to do his homework, sneak out of the house and go to the bus station, where he’d take a bus to Blüdhaven, preferably getting inside without anyone seeing him, when he arrived, he’d tell someone his father forgot to pick him up and he didn’t have a phone and ask them to call him an Uber to the address he had written down in a folded piece of paper, and that would take him to her.

It was a great plan and there was no way it could go wrong because it was completely amazing. He wouldn’t be calling the Ubers from his phone so his mother wouldn’t get a notification, and even if they found he used the nanny’s phone, he would take the bus and he would leave his phone at home so no one would follow him. It was perfect.

And that’s exactly what he did.

The lady from the bus station scoffed angrily when he told her his father forgot him and mumbled ‘men’ under her breath as if his fake father’s forgetting him was something predictable to her but no less enraging. He made a cute face, smiled brightly up at her, popping his dimples, and thanked her, offering to pay with his own money, but she refused him and said it was a favor on her. He wondered if she would still pay for him if she knew he was very rich because his mother’s company made many zillions of dollars. It was actually the family company, so his grandfather’s company, but it was his mother’s now, and she ran it because his uncle Lex, who was older than her, got really sick and had to go live away in a place where people who get sick in their minds go to live and get better.

He felt guilty for letting the nice lady pay for him because he had a lot of money in his backpack, so he offered the driver a few bills as a tip, because his mother taught him that leaving a tip for someone who works in jobs where they need the people who they do their jobs for to get paid, like drivers and waiters and the people who worked at hotels, was a nice thing to do and it could help them. The driver nearly choked when Liam gave him the five bills of hundred dollars and smiled at Liam. I wasn’t a great smile, but Liam wouldn’t judge.

Liam got out of the car and looked up at the building, it wasn’t very big or pretty, but the entire city looked sad already, that building wasn’t the ugliest.

Apartment 4A. Liam’s heart started hammering in his chest, he was going to meet his other mother in person. He was excited.

He pressed the doorbell and pulled on his best smile, waiting for the blonde woman to open.

\-------

 

Being a single mother was the hardest job Lena had ever had. It was also the most gratifying. She loved her baby boy with all her heart and then some. He was the love of her life, her little prince.

Lena wasn’t the kind of girl who always dreamed of being a mother, nor did she believe she’d be a fantastic mother. In fact, even during her pregnancy, she had her doubts, but her brother Lex had been there for her, telling her she had nothing to worry about because she was amazing and she would be an amazing mother.

She was 24 when she decided to have a child. Though conventionally soon for a woman to decide to have a baby on her own and by herself, something usually seen as the last resort of mid to late 30’s single women desperate to have a baby before 40, Lena knew it was the right time.

 She had gone to school, gotten her degree, and then three PhDs to follow, she was the CFO of the family company, she had her brother next to her, running the company with her, she had her mother for anything she could need, she had her best friend Sam… her life was great, and a lot more put together than most people her age could even dream of. But there was something missing.

Lena had been feeling like something was missing in her life for quite some time.

First, she thought it was because of her studies, but after three PhDs and an MBA, the feeling was still there. And then she thought it was a career thing, but Lex made her his CFO, after convincing her to accept it as it was her birthright and forcing her to prove to herself that she was good enough for the job, and still the feeling was there. Even after all the amazing things she did as the CFO, the feeling didn’t go away. She knew it had nothing to do with a romantic relationship, she never gave all that much attention to those, though she did have a rather active sexual life.

Until she offered to babysit Sam’s daughter, Ruby, for the weekend when the girl was three. And it was like something clicked, though she wasn’t sure yet. But the next few weeks she kept seeing more and more babies with their mothers. On the streets, on the tv, at the office, restaurants, parks, everywhere she went she started seeing, or rather noticing, babies. And so she thought about it. For months she thought about it. It all fitted. She loved children, she was good with children, whenever she saw one, she spent the next several minutes to hours thinking about what it would be like if she had one, and how her child would be. Holding babies made her feel warm inside, and she felt very important when a child liked her.

After much consideration, she had a conversation with her mother about it. Her mother who was the head researcher and chief of staff at Cadmus labs, a medical innovation center specialized in genetic engineering. Lillian explained to her all the methods Project Cadmus did, including a new method they discovered to facilitate same-sex reproduction. And when Lena decided to have a child, her mother supported her and promised to help, and to get her the healthiest, smartest and best-looking donors they had in their system, ‘only the best for a Luthor’, Lillian had said.

Lena was presented with the files of the deemed best of the best. Out of seven of them, she fell for one: donor 38752. Who happened to be a woman.

And when Lena held her baby boy in her arms for the first time, she knew she’d made the right decision.

He was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Every tiny fingernail, every single toe, every single hair on his body, and his little hands and arms and legs and feet, and his beautiful little face with his tiny nose and his funny little ears, and his cute little yawns. Lena had never been more in love. All the pain, all the blood, sweat, and tears, both literally and figuratively, it had all been worth it in that moment that she finally got to meet her baby boy. She didn’t even know it was possible to love one tiny little person so much, that _she_ was capable of so much love.

She gave him a strong Irish name, to keep with her roots, the name of her grandfather, and for the middle name, the name of the most important person in her life… second now, her brother Lex.

Liam was an angel, he never gave her any trouble, even as a baby. He didn’t cry just for the sake of crying like a lot of fussy kids did, he didn’t keep her up all night unless something was wrong, he never made a scandal for not wanting to eat something, even tantrums were rare for him. Sometimes Lena swore she had just gotten lucky with him, that that was the only reason for him to be so good, but deep down she knew it had at least a little something to do with her, she must have been doing something right.

As he grew he continued to be nothing but amazing, never made a scandal in public, never yelled at her or did something rude like hitting someone or spitting or calling people names. Lena was very proud, of both him and herself.

Despite her doubts and her fears that she’d end up raising a spoiled rich brat who thought the world was at his feet, and with a lot of factors that could have contributed to such behavior, such as the Luthors being one of the most powerful families in the country and, as Lex liked to joke, essentially owning Metropolis, Liam turned out to be a pretty great kid.

And then Lex went crazy, that was something Lena had not seen coming. They were close, or at least she thought so. He was her big brother, her hero, her best friend, they shared everything. She relied on him for her entire life, and he helped her so much during the first couple of years of Liam’s life, that she felt guilty and somewhat responsible for not seeing the signs before. She felt like if she had seen it sooner, maybe she could have done something to help him before he completely lost himself. But that didn’t happen, and Lex lost it. Lena and Lillian had him committed to a psych ward and Lena had to step up and assume the control of the company.

Being a CEO of a massive international conglomerate and a single mother of a two-year-old boy wasn’t an easy task, but Lena managed, and she managed to always be there for her son. The transitioning process wasn’t entirely too difficult, despite Lex’s madness, it was mostly only a promotion of formalities as she had already been covering for Lex as he traveled the world doing whatever it was that he was doing, and her mother was still on the board, and she had Sam as her CFO, so she wasn’t going in blind nor alone.

After things were properly settled, she made a point to always make time for Liam, she knew how hard it was to have busy important parents that didn’t have enough time for their kids, and she didn’t want that for him. Weekends were exclusively his, and barring any emergencies, she was always there for breakfast and dinner and to help him with his homework and put him to bed, even fitting a little time between that to play with him.

Liam was a smart boy, clever, kind and curious like no other kid she’d ever met. She knew that most parents probably said the same, but Liam was special, he took after her.

He was a good kid.

Which is why it came at such a shock when the uncountable voicemails and text messages from the nanny told her one thing: Liam was gone.

\-------

 

Kara didn’t know what she expected to find when she opened her door, but a pair of bright blue eyes looking up at her eagerly was definitely not on her list of possibilities.

The small boy with dark hair, pale skin and dimpled cheeks, didn’t look like anyone she’d ever seen, but there was something familiar about him, in his eyes and the shape of his nose and chin that made Kara uneasy.

“Hello?” Kara greeted confused. “Are you lost?”

“Are you Kara Danvers?” The boy asked instead, he couldn’t be older than eight.

“Yes…?” she said carefully.

“My name is Liam,” he introduced himself with a cute smile, “I’m your son.”

Kara almost choked. “You’re my what now?” That was definitely not how she envisioned her night.

\-------

 

Lena gave orders for her driver to get home as fast as possible, traffic laws be damned, and texted Sam to meet her home asap.

It didn’t quite register with her until she was stepping inside of the manor, being greeted by a sympathetic Sam and a hysterical nanny, that her baby boy had disappeared.

Lena collapsed into Sam’s arms as the nanny talked, nothing really registering aside from the fact that Liam was not there and had not been for hours.

Lena was numb. She could barely feel Sam’s body keeping her steady and leading her to a sofa, and she did not hear Sam loudly scolding the nanny right near her ear.

“How could you let this happen? How do you lose an eight-year-old boy? You had one job!” Sam practically barked, livid. “And why didn’t you warn anyone sooner?”

“I tried but Ms. Luthor wasn’t answering her phone and…”

“You should have called me!”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Arias...”

“Save it!” Sam cut her off. “You’re fired!”

“Miss?”

“Get the hell out of my sight before I hurt you.”

The woman couldn’t get away fast enough.

Once alone in the living room, Sam kneeled in front of Lena, making sure she had Lena’s attention before speaking.

“Hey,” Sam said softly. “It’s going to be okay,” she promised. “We’re going to find him. We’re going to get him back.”

Lena nodded, teary eyed and still a bit in shock.

\-------

 

The boy, Liam, made to talk but Kara stopped him. “Why don’t we get you inside? I’m sure this is not a conversation for a hallway.” She glanced around, sure a neighbor or another would be watching through the peep hole or was going to come out demanding explanations any time now, and she didn’t want to make a scene, especially not one that could probably end up with the police involved.

She ushered him inside and closed the door, turning around to see him standing in her living room, bouncing on his feet.

“You’re really pretty,” he said delighted.

Kara looked at him perplexed. “Thank you?” she mumbled.

He only smiled at her cutely, nodding his head as if proud of himself.

“Alright,” Kara started. “Just to be clear, I do not have children. Never had. It’d be kind of impossible for me to have a kid and not know about, considering how pregnancy works. But I still want to know how you know my name… And where I live… And what you’re doing here.”

Liam nodded. “Nine years ago, did you donate your DNA for Cadmus labs?” he asked, as if trying to induce her to the conclusion.

She couldn’t believe an eight-year-old was talking to her like that, but it did ring a bell. Nine years ago, was when she donated her bone marrow for the cancer treatment of a little girl in Metropolis, she was on the database and the lab had paid for her ticket and everything. But it was to a lab called OMAC, she’d never willingly give her biological material for the likes of Project Cadmus, with all the evil things that were rumored to happen in there.

Project Cadmus was a scientific research organization subsidiary of LuthorCorp, one of the world’s largest, most diversified multinational corporations, owned by the notorious Luthor family, the most powerful and controversial family in the country. Cadmus was primarily known for its achievements in genetic engineering and the rumors about its human cloning capabilities, amongst other just as ethically questionable experiments.

“I… I don’t think so,” Kara stuttered. Could it be that the lab she gone to was actually a front to Cadmus as a way to get material for research? That was both too farfetched and ingenious enough to actually be true.

“Well, Cadmus got your DNA, and my mama wanted to have a baby, but she didn’t have anyone to have it with, so she went to Cadmus and they had many files of people and she chose yours and she got your DNA and Cadmus used it with hers to make me,” Liam explained, as if it was a simple and totally ordinary statement.

“How do you know all of this?” Kara asked, because having a young boy say such things was as weird as the whole notion was for her.

Kara knew Cadmus had been revolutionary for the same-sex reproduction, but she couldn’t have been a part of it, she never agreed to do it.

“Mama told me ‘where I came from’,” he said making air quotes to highlight the sentence.

“And when she told you all of that, did she tell you that _I’m_ your mother?”

“Other mother,” he corrected.

“Right. Other mother,” Kara corrected herself.

Liam nodded.

“But I can’t… this isn’t… I’m…” Kara paced around trying to make sense of what to tell this boy, she couldn’t tell him his mother was a liar, could she.

“Mama had your file, but there was no picture,” Liam said. “I found it in her office.” He pulled a small stack of photos from his backpack.

Kara tuned around to look at him, stopping her pacing and meeting his eager eyes as he offered her the photos.

The eyes were what got Kara, because she’d recognize those eyes anywhere, she never thought she’d get to see those eyes looking back at her ever again, not unless looking in the mirror. He had her family’s eyes, her father’s eyes. And that’s how she knew he was telling the truth. The photos he was showing her of a file with all her information, down to her SAT scores and her volunteer work, labeled ‘Kara Linda Danvers, donor 38752’, was just a consolidation.

“Oh dear god, I need to sit down,” Kara muttered as she walked backwards and fell against her couch.

As her mind tried to make sense of it all, she watched him look around her apartment, taking everything in with his curious eyes and his clearly sharp little mind.

“May I have something to drink?” he asked politely, in a way Kara had never really heard a child speak. “I’m thirsty.”

She waved a hand towards the fridge as her answer and he nodded smiling as he made his way to the fridge and got the carton of apple juice she had there, searching for a little while until he found a glass by the sink. He poured a bit for himself and turned to her.

“Would you like some?”

She shook her head no and he put the jar back in the fridge before drinking, holding the glass carefully with both hands.

“What exactly are you doing here?” Kara heard herself asking.

“I wanted to meet you,” Liam explained simply, wiping the juice from his lips with the back of his hand. “Everyone I know has two parents, and I wanted to know you.”

“Cool, cool, cool cool cool,” Kara babbled as she nodded. “That is great, yes, totally. No doubt. Awesome!”

“You’re not happy I’m here,” Liam said flatly.

Kara looked up at him and saw that he was watching her carefully.

“Well, I never knew you existed. I never even knew there was a possibility of you existing. It’s a lot to take in.”

“Did you really not give Cadmus your DNA? Mama says lots of people give their DNA’s to help other people who can’t have babies the other way.”

“The only people I gave my DNA to, were the ones at the blood bank,” Kara told him. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“It’s Liam,” he corrected her.

“Liam,” she repeated. “Well, I’m sorry, Liam, but I really didn’t… this shouldn’t be… this is so…” She couldn’t really find the right words to express herself, let alone to a young boy she never met. She saw his anguished look, finally looking concerned to be in a stranger’s apartment alone and unprotected, he was very small, and he looked near to tears, though holding them back like a pro. “I believe you,” she assured him softly.

He perked up immediately. “You do?”

Kara nodded. “Your eyes.” She gestured to her own eyes. “We, uhm, we have the same eyes.”

“Oh!”

“Gosh,” Kara exclaimed, finally thinking about the most important part of this crazy puzzle. “Your mother must be so worried about you.”

Liam’s eyes widened, and she could see he had never thought that he’d be hurting his mother, but he was now, and he felt bad.

“Alright, I’m taking you home,” Kara told him. “Where do you live?”

“I’m only telling you if you promise to hang out with me,” he said firmly, stopping his right foot a little.

“Excuse me?” she asked bewildered.

Liam shrugged. “I didn’t come all the way here just to say hi. I want to know you,” he insisted.

Kara rolled her eyes and huffed. He stood his ground, of course, she knew that if he was anything like her, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. A staring contest almost formed, and she could tell he was up to it, but Kara gave up before it could escalate more.

“I promise to hang out with you, and you tell me where you live so I can take you home?”

Liam nodded. “And the car ride does not count.”

Kara signed. “Fine. Deal.”

He insisted they shake on their deal, to make it official. Cute.

“Okay, now where do you live?”

“Metropolis,” Liam told her.

Kara sighed. “Metropolis? Seriously?”

“Uhum,” Liam hummed his confirmation, not catching that it was a rhetorical question.

“Ugh, alright, let’s get you home,” Kara said tiredly.

\------

 

Lena had never been more scared in her entire life.

The hours she spent worrying about Liam, not knowing where he was, if he was safe, if he was hungry or cold or scared, were the worst she had ever experienced.

It was worse than finding out Lillian wasn’t her biological mother, it was worse than Lex being dragged kicking and screaming to the ambulance that would take him to the psych ward, it was worse than her father’s funeral.

She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know how to occupy time, she didn’t even know how to breathe normally.

All that she could do was sit and wait as Sam tried to calm her down and her security detail went about trying to find Liam. Sam was good at crisis management, and more _importantly_ Lena management. They hadn’t called the police, because a scandal was the last thing they needed. A horde of reporters on the gates of the manor would do the opposite of helping. But Luthors had people on their pay role since before Lena was born, the kind of people who dealt with this kind of situation.

They had been informed that Liam had left the manor by his own volition, and that was a bittersweet information. On one hand, he had not been kidnapped which was a huge relief, on the other, he had put himself in danger and left without permission or explanation on purpose.

“Why would he do that, Sam?” Lena said as she hugged her tea cup with both hands, it wasn’t exactly a question. “Why would he do something like this? That’s so unlike him.”

“I don’t know, honey. I don’t know.” Sam rubbed her shoulder, giving her a half hug, and Lena let her try and comfort her.

\-------

 

The only reason Kara had a car was because it was a going away present from the Kents to her after she spent all that time helping them instead of going after a job or an active social life. It was 6 years old, but it was in good condition, besides, a truck never really goes old if it’s well taken care of.

It was surreal to be in her truck with the young boy who claimed to be her son, driving him back to his mother.

Liam was already small, but inside her Chevy the boy looked impossibly tiny, being practically swallowed by the massiveness of the seat, and the truck in general. Kara herself felt small sometimes in the truck, and sometimes she felt a little ridiculous for having to all but climb inside, not to mention the many times she stumbled out of it and nearly fell on her face, but she liked how spacious it was, and how it made her feel confident and powerful.

She still hadn’t gotten an address from him, just the city, and she was afraid the boy truly didn’t know, because that would make it slightly harder to get him home.

Metropolis was huge, with a population of over 11 million people, there were literally millions of residences, any of those could be his, and the longer she took to get him back, the more it prolonged the agony of the mother.

She herself had never experienced anything close to it, but one time she got lost in the woods for an entire day, and the Danvers had to get the police force to get her, and when she got back home, Eliza was visibly shaken and wouldn’t let go of her for hours. She figured the boy’s mother must be feeling something similar to what Eliza felt that night, except Kara was 14 that time and Liam was 8 now.

“Don’t you want to call your mother?” Kara asked Liam after a little while on the car. “Tell her that you’re okay, that you’re going home, and not being kidnapped or killed…”

Liam shrugged, looking a little guilty, as he was all the times she mentioned his mother. “I don’t know her number.”

“Oh,” Kara said. “That’s not very great. She must be really worried. Maybe even called the police... I could get arrested just for having you in my car.”

Liam tried to burry himself inside his seat. “I’m really sorry,” he said in a small voice. “I didn’t think of this. I just wanted to meet you.”

“Hey, no,” Kara exclaimed softly, placing a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t worry, sweetie. We’re gonna get you home safely and it’ll all be fine, okay?”

He nodded.

“It’s going to be a long ride, you know,” Kara told him a few minutes later. “Do you want to listen to music or something?”

“Do you know how to play 20 questions?”

\-------

 

“What if it was something I did,” Lena asked Sam after they retired the tea and went for the wine when it was clear Lena needed something stronger.

“He didn’t run away from you, Lena,” Sam assured her. “You are an amazing mom and that boy loves you to pieces.”

“But I’ve been working so hard lately and I’m never around,” Lena argued. “What if he feels neglected?”

“Hey!” Sam said sharply, startling Lena and making the brunette look at her. “You are not Lillian, you hear me?”

With wide glassy eyes, Lena nodded quickly.

Despite having a good relationship now that she was an adult, Lena and her mother had a very complicated relationship when she was growing up. Mostly because Lillian worked too much and didn’t give Lena enough attention, which led Lena to spend most of her childhood second-guessing herself and believing her mother didn’t love her.

“You are an amazing mother and you’re doing a great job with that little boy, and he idolizes you,” Sam continued with passion. “He told me the other day that you’re his hero because you help other people and that he wants to be like you when he grows up. He also told me he leaves the hardest parts of his homework for you to help him with, even when he knows it, because he knows you like helping him. Do you really think a boy like that feels neglected?”

Lena had started crying the moment Sam said the word hero. “I’m scared, Sam,” she confessed as the tears rolled down. “I’m so scared. I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to him.”

Sam pulled Lena into a tight hug. “Nothing is going to happen, honey. He’ll come back. Safe; and everything will be okay. And he’ll tell you everything I just told you, that you’re the best mom and that he loves you more than anything.”

Lena nodded as she cried on Sam’s shoulder, gripping Sam’s shirt tightly.

Sam was trying to be strong for Lena, but she was just as scared. It had been over six hours since the nanny noticed he was gone, and who knows how long he had been gone before that, and there were still no leads from the tracking team. That couldn’t be a good sign. But Sam knew she had to be strong for Lena. Lena was the strongest woman she knew, but right now Lena needed her help, and there was nothing Sam would deny her.

\-------

 

It was a near three hours ride from Blüdhaven to Metropolis, and Kara managed to entertain Liam easily.

Despite the situation, he was a very easy-going boy, cheerful and curious if only a bit shy… though shy wasn’t really the word, a little introverted, it seemed. And he seemed to be extremely smart for his age. They played 20 questions and he beat Kara three out of four times, giggling every time she made a question that was too far off from what he was thinking.

He was really cute and charming, and Kara was sure he was used to interacting with adults and that his mother was probably a very sociable person.

At some point, Liam decided to ask Kara questions about herself, because, as he had said, he wanted to know her.

“The file said you spoke eight languages, do you really speak eight languages?”

The file, that was something that made Kara very uneasy. To know someone stole her information like that. Which was almost silly to be bothered by something so little compared to the actual child created by her supposed stolen DNA. Stolen DNA was significantly worse than her school record.

“I actually speak ten languages,” Kara told him. “There’s English, obviously, then Yiddish, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Hebrew, Greek and ASL. But I can read Latin as well.”

“Wow!” the little boy gasped. “That’s cool.”

Kara laughed. “Yeah. Not so popular when I was in school.”

“Why not?” Liam asked genuinely confused.

“Because kids made fun of me for being a nerd.”

“Being a nerd is cool. My mama is a nerd, and she is super cool, and she makes lots of money.”

Kara laughed again. “Yeah, nerds usually make a lot of money when they grow up.”

“Do you make lots of money?”

“I said usually, not always,” Kara joked. “I’m a journalist, buddy,” she explained. “Which means I don’t.”

Liam hummed, mostly to himself. “My mama doesn’t like journalists much,” he said candidly. “She says they are annoying and put their noses where they shouldn’t.”

“Yeah, some journalists can be like that,” Kara agreed.

“Mama doesn’t like when journalists try to take our picture in the street,” the boy continued, “she says it’s an invasion of, of…” He stopped, trying to find the word.

“Privacy?” Kara offered.

“Yeah.”

“Those journalists aren’t very nice. They’re called paparazzi, I don’t like them either,” Kara told him. And then she frowned. “What does your mama do for them to want your picture?”

“She’s a CEO,” he said proudly. “Which means she’s the boss of many, many people.”

“I know what a CEO is,” Kara said, not unkindly. “What is she the CEO of?”

“Our family company,” Liam said.

“Oh, that’s cool,” Kara said, without realizing the boy hadn’t finished talking.

“LuthorCorp,” he finished.

Kara choked on her saliva and almost hit the brakes. The car shook a bit, but she managed to steady it as she coughed. “Your mother is Lena Luthor?” Kara gasped.

“Uhum,” Liam agreed with a nod.

“Oh, fudge.”

Kara pulled over. She needed to take a breath.

“Is something wrong?” Liam asked with a deep frown.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong. I just needed to, uhm, rest my feet,” Kara lied lamely.

The good news was Kara now knew where the boy lived. The bad news was he was a member of the very powerful and allegedly dangerous family that could easily make her disappear without leaving a trace.

Kara googled where the Luthor Manor was. There were two mansions on the Luthor name in Metropolis, but the Luthor Manor, the smallest of the two, if six acres of property could be called small, was where Lena Luthor was known to live ever since her son was born. Kara knew this for being a reporter, and as a reporter, she felt stupid not recognizing who was probably the richest child in the country. Maybe Lena Luthor was doing a good job at keeping him somewhat hidden from the world.

Kara put the coordinates to the manor on her GPS before starting the car again.

She was silent for a few minutes as she resumed the drive until Liam got bored and started speaking again.

“What’s the favorite language you can speak?”

“French,” Kara said with no hesitation.

“Why?”

“Because my aunt taught me, and it’s what I spoke with her.”

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Hmm… Red, I guess.”

“Do you like pink pancakes?”

“I never had just pink pancakes. I like to draw mine, actually.”

“Cool!”

“What’s your favorite movie?”

“The Wizard of Oz.”

Liam frowned. “I never watched it.”

“It’s really ooold,” she joked. “What’s yours?”

“Star Wars!” he exclaimed, enunciating the words exaggeratedly.

Kara laughed. “I like Star Wars too. My sister and I watch all of them together every Christmas.”

“Mama took me to visit the place where they filmed Tatooine last year,” he told her excitedly, then he paused. “It was mostly just sand, though.”

Kara laughed again, a bit harder. “That was to be expected.” She bit her lip, considering what to say next. “So, uhm, your mother sounds… cool,” it was lame, and it sounded like a question and Kara wanted to hit herself.

But Liam was just an eight-year-old, as smart as he was, and didn’t pick up on her pathetic attempt at a conversation starter.

“Mama is the coolest! She’s super smart, and she can build things from nothing, like she built a drone once and it could fly faster than the ones you buy at the stores, it was awesome, and she can fix anything and she bakes the best cookies, and she’s great at reading stories and she plays video games with me and she lets me win, even though I don’t want her to let me win because then I’ll never beat her for real but she always pretends like she doesn’t know what I’m talking...”

“Wow,” Kara gasped to stop his little rant. “Sounds like you really love her.”

“I do,” he agreed with a vigorous nod. “So much. She’s the best.”

Kara could only smile. She didn’t really know how to follow such a passionate ode to the mother.

The mother who was Lena Luthor.

 _The_ Lena Luthor. The woman who was CFO of the biggest business conglomerate of the Occident at 23, and CEO at 26. Granted it was her family’s company and she only took over after her brother Lex went crazy, but the company had been doing increasingly better since she took over. And she still was the youngest woman CEO in the world, not to mention the richest woman in the world according to Forbes, and the youngest of the world’s top billionaires, being a year younger than Mark Zuckerberg. The woman was a legend.

And a Luthor.

And Kara was still terrified of that part.

Despite being the face of several charities and being a big philanthropist and advocate for people’s rights, Kara didn’t want to know what the Luthor part of her would do to the person who had her son.

And she was the person who had said son in her possession.

Oh, she was so dead.

As she drove up the pathway leading to the gates of the Luthor Manor, Kara kept waiting for a sniper to take her out or for a black ops agent to just drop over her truck and yank her outside. But maybe they wouldn’t risk it while Liam was with her. She was safe with Liam. They could be just waiting for her to drop him off, for a mean looking henchman to be sent after her, and then her family would never know what happened to her and she’d never get to read the ending of A Song of Ice and Fire or watch the next Avengers movie.

The closer she got to the gates, the harder her heart beat.

Until she came to a stop. Right in front of the gates. By the intercom.

Heart thundering in her chest, she reached over to press the button on the intercom, and just as the little screen was coming to life and a voice asked who it was, Liam was jumping in her lap and peaking his head out.

“It’s me Mickey!” he said with a bright smile to the camera, and Kara could swear she recognized at least part of that smile as her own.

“Welcome home, Master Liam,” the man said almost reverent, but Kara detected a hint of teasing in the voice.

The gates opened, and Kara waited for Liam to put his seatbelt back on before continuing.

Had the circumstances been different, Kara would have been able to appreciate the massive home better, but she was on a mission… of sorts.

She parked right next to a fountain, surrounded by flowers and streetlights illuminating the pathway, and jumped out of the truck, circling it quickly to help Liam out. She was opening the passenger door when the doors to the house opened.

“LIAM!” came a pierced and desperate scream and Kara glanced over her shoulders to see a dark-haired woman clad in business like clothes, pencil skirt, button up shirt, tight bun and expensive looking heels, with tearstained cheeks practically sprinting towards them. _The mother_ , Kara thought, _Lena freaking Luthor_.

Kara helped Liam down, having to literally pick him up and put him down on the floor, due to the height of her truck. The boy hadn’t even properly touched the ground yet when the woman reached him, throwing herself at him, hugging him so fiercely they both almost stumbled to the floor.

“Oh, my love,” Lena gasped, “mama was so worried.” She hugged him as tight as she could, tears running down her face fast, trying to kiss every inch of his face. “Mama was so worried, baby,” she repeated. “I thought I lost you.”

“I’m sorry, mama,” Liam said in a small voice.

Kara stood back awkwardly. Feeling like an intruder on this personal moment. Watching this woman, who she always perceived as super composed and, well, a Luthor, completely break in front of her. Kara never thought Luthors even had real emotions, yet there she was crying uncontrollably, and from the looks of it, she had spent the last few hours doing just that. Right then, she wasn’t Lena Luthor, CEO, she was simply a mother, glad to have her son safely back in her arms.

Kara felt eyes on her and raised her head to see a tall woman studying her by the large doors of the manor. She shifted awkwardly in place and then Lena Luthor was looking at her.

It was like something had clicked, and the woman went from a concerned mother to savvy business woman in a clench of jaw. Kara tried not to think about how attractive that jaw clench was, but the woman in front of her looked like a Greek goddess and Kara had very little control over her gay mess of self. Sure she had seen the woman in magazines and in online articles and stuff, but pictures did not do justice to how breathtakingly gorgeous she was.

The woman straightened herself up, standing tall in front of Kara, but keeping a hand firmly on her son’s shoulder. She tightened her lips, with a little frown of her brows when she swallowed her saliva, drying her tears with the cuff of her shirt.

 _Wow_ , was the only thought Kara could form.

“Thank you for finding my son and bringing him home,” Lena Luthor said formally, Kara recognized the CEO in her voice.

Kara nodded, looking at the woman still a little dumbly, her lips gaping as she looked for something to say. She ended up laughing nervously. “Yeah, n-no, no problem. Not at all,” she stammered. “He, uhm, he actually found… found me,” she confessed.

The Luthor woman raised one eyebrow at her, as if asking Kara to elaborate.

“I’m Kara Danvers.” The woman looked like she had just been slapped in the face, and Kara smiled a bit awkwardly at her. “Hi.”

\-------

 

“Ms. Luthor,” one of the security guards said approaching them in the kitchen. “He’s here.”

“What?” Both Lena and Sam said together.

“He just entered the gates in a pickup truck. A woman is driving him,” the man explained.

A sob dislodged itself from Lena’s throat, like it had been stuck there for hours, and before Sam or the security man even knew what was happening, Lena was running towards and out the door.

She saw a bright blue death contraption parked by the fountain and a woman was opening the passenger door. But nothing mattered, Lena didn’t see anything else when the door opened, and she saw him inside.

“LIAM!” Lena screamed as she ran towards them with a speed she never even knew she had.

She reached them just as the woman was putting him in the ground, and she pulled him into her arms.

“Oh, my love,” Lena gasped, “mama was so worried.” She hugged him as tight as she could, hands gripping his jacket, trying to kiss every inch of his face. “Mama was so worried, baby,” she repeated. “I thought I lost you.”

“I’m sorry, mama,” Liam said in a small voice.

“It’s alright, my love. You’re okay, you’re home,” Lena breathed out relieved, and Liam nodded and let her squish him as much as she needed.

Until she caught a movement and she remembered they weren’t alone. She looked up at the woman, still crouched in front of her son. She wasn’t what one would expect to come out of a pickup truck. White skinny jeans and a thick dark blue space themed sweater, with a plaid shirt peeking out from underneath, all of which were extremely fitting, nearly painted on, in the lithe body of the blonde woman in piggy-tails and dark-framed glasses. She looked like someone one would find at a chess match – and Lena would know – not coming out of a monstrosity of a car. She was attractive, Lena would give her that, her body was visibly toned even through the jeans and sweater, and she had a rather youthful face, quite cute.

It was obvious that the blonde was completely out of her element.

Lena clenched her jaw as she eyed the woman, and she looked about ready to run away. She straightened her posture, steeling herself and she noticed the woman get even more uncomfortable as Lena went from concerned mother to Luthor with hardly a breath. The blonde gulped and Lena almost didn’t hold back the smile of satisfaction at the reaction. Pressing her lips together tightly, Lena wiped at her face with the sleeve of her blouse.

“Thank you for finding my son and bringing him home,” Lena said in her ‘Luthor’ voice.

The woman nodded, gaping a little like she didn’t know what to say, then laughing nervously. “Yeah, n-no, no problem. Not at all,” she stammered. “He, uhm, he actually found… found me,” she confessed.

Lena raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the blonde.

“I’m Kara Danvers.”

Lena felt faint, like the ground was shifting underneath her. That was very much unexpected.

Lena trusted her mother wholeheartedly and didn’t even think to question her when it came to choosing the procedure for her pregnancy. A less trusting daughter might have reconsidered and asked for a male donor to go with the common procedure, as much as she loved the one she chose.

The girl with the perfect GPA, with an SAT score higher than Lena’s, which implied she got all questions right considering Lena had only missed two, who decided to study arts and journalism instead of pursuing a higher and more prestigious field of study. The girl who finished highschool at 14 and graduated college with three majors before 20, speaking eight languages, and who lived with her elderly relatives in a farm in Kansas to help them with the things they were too old to do. The girl with a heart so big she volunteered in resting homes and hospitals on both the cancer and the children’s ward, who donated blood 3 times a year and adopted sick or elderly dogs so they had someone to love before passing. Lena was in love before she even finished reading the file, and she didn’t even bother reading any other. She trusted her mother knew what she was doing.

Despite her PhD in biochem, Lena wasn’t a geneticist and her knowledge on genetic engineering was limited to a few scientific magazine articles and what her mother had told her. Lena had total faith in science, in her mother, and the work Cadmus was doing, so she went ahead with the procedure without a question, without a doubt.

The only thing Lena did do before, was running a more detailed background check on the donor. It was the Luthor thing to do, and her mother laughed when she confessed to it.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Lillian had told her. “In fact, I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

Though one thing she never told her mother, was that she had refuse to look at a recent picture of the woman. She knew it was silly of her, but she was so infatuated by the woman already, simply by what she found out about her, that knowing how she looked would either break the magic or make it worse and ruin Lena completely, and she couldn’t let herself to care for someone involved in a process that was so clinical, impersonal, detached.

But as the years would go on, Lena would indulge herself in the silly sentimentalism of the situation and keep tabs on the young woman who would grow up to become a reporter, and a good one at that. She’d feel like she knew the woman while at the same time not knowing her at all, like a celebrity one follows on Twitter or an artist one admires to for their entire life having a glimpse into their soul with each work but would not recognize if they passed by on the street. Lena would read every article the woman ever published, but she’d never manage to bring herself to look at a picture of her, know how she looked.

And as Kara Danvers stood in front of her, smiling down at her a little awkwardly but entirely too charming, Lena knew that her decision had been wise. She didn’t know what she’d do with herself had she known the woman was the personification of an angel.

Lena would describe the feeling of meeting her as somewhere between star-struck and a slap on the face; completely earthshattering.

A stab of panic washed though her, like a bitter taste rising in her throat, that this woman was here to take her son away from her.

It didn’t really help that the blonde did a little wave as she started swaying in place nervously and said “Hi” in the most awkward and yet adorable way Lena had ever seen in a grown adult.

 _Fuck_ , was all Lena could think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's that for a first chapter?  
> I live for the feedbacks, and I'd love to know how I could improve, so please tell me what you think.
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr @myheartisbro-ken, I'm always open to questions, chats, plotting to overthrow the government, so hit me up. Thank you for reading ❤️


	2. Not Off to a Great Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Lena discuss their situation. They both need their respective friends. Kara makes a few phone calls. Lena does some parenting. Things start to be explained. Liam learns the consequences of his actions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holly shit, this had a much better response than I was expecting.  
> Thanks to everyone who commented and left kudos and subscribed (I'm super flattered and I love you all). So here we have a new chapter!
> 
> I had originally planned to have a lot more happen in this chapter, but as it turns out, I have no authority over my characters and they do what they want, so this is what we have. I love it either way, I hope you do too.  
> If you follow my other work, sorry it's taking so long, I took a bit of a time off from that because I needed to clear my head in order to make progress.  
> I've added a few references that I would love to know if spotted.
> 
> This is basically the same format as the previous chapter, so try not to get lost :P
> 
> I've chosen to not talk too much on here anymore, so I'll zip it.
> 
> Enjoy :D

 

“I’m Kara Danvers.” The words rang loudly in Lena’s head as the blonde smiled expectantly at her, discomfort and anxiety clear in her entire body. “Hi,” the woman added after she stood under Lena’s perplexed gaze for a beat too long.

“Well, it’s nice to finally put a face to the name,” Lena said casually once she managed to recover. “I’m Lena Luthor,” she introduced herself, extending her hand for Kara to shake.

Maybe physical contact wasn’t the brightest idea, Lena thought as an afterthought as the woman took her hand. She had just recovered from the shock of that woman being the other biological parent of her son, and the electricity that ran through her hand and up her arm all the way down to her spine when their skins touched was not helping at all. Kara didn’t look to be more affected than she already was, but maybe that had something to do with the fact that she just looked in a state of permanent shock since Lena’s eyes met hers.

“I know,” Kara said after a long pause, but then she winced. “I mean, it’s nice to meet you too, Ms. Luthor.”

How could she be so charming? Lena wondered, she usually hated uncertainty and stammering and people being awkward, but something about Kara Danvers’ awkwardness was rather endearing to her. She blamed it on the intricated history they simultaneously shared and did not share, and the years reading up on her.

“I believe we might have a few things to discuss, Ms. Danvers,” Lena said, dropping Kara’s hand. “Would you like to come inside?”

“Uhm…” Kara hesitated for a moment. “Y-yeah. Sure.”

Lena nodded and turned around, glancing down at Liam to see him grinning, but his face fell when he saw her raised eyebrow. She didn’t bother looking to see if the woman was following her as she led Liam back to the house with her hand still on his shoulder.

Liam had the decency of lowering his head and following his mother quietly, only looking up to greet Sam with a small nod and a low ‘hey, aunt Sam,’ but directing his eyes back to his feet once he saw the stern look present in Sam’s face.

Kara was several feet behind both Luthors, and Sam’s face cleared up to a kind and thankful smile when she stepped next to her.

“Thank you for bringing him back home, Ms…” Sam trailed off, waiting for Kara to fill in the blank. Lena could hear the awkward clearing of throat the blonde did before answering, and she turned around just in time to catch Sam’s reaction to:

“Danvers. Kara Danvers,” Kara introduced herself quickly.

“Oh!” Was all that left Sam’s mouth, the recognition clear in her voice made Kara flinch, her eyebrows shooting up to her hairline as she turned to Lena for a confirmation. Their eyes met and for a few seconds they just looked at each other, and then Sam smiled forcedly back at Kara. “And that’s my cue. Unless you need me here,” Sam directed the question to Lena who shook her head.

“No, you can go home, Sam,” Lena told her with a small smile. “You’ve done more than enough already. Thank you.”

Sam nodded. “It’s what I’m here for.” She walked forward and pressed a kiss to Lena’s temple while hugging her. “Call me if you need anything,” she whispered when she stepped back. “And _you_ , mister,” she said turning to Liam, bending her knees a little to reach eye level with him, narrowing her eyes at him, “try not to give your mother a heart attack while I’m gone.”

Guilt etched the boy’s face and he nodded meekly.

They were quiet as they watched Sam leave the house, and then Lena turned to Liam.

“Have you eaten?” she asked with a softness that completely went against the fame her last name had. Liam nodded again. “Alright, love, up you go. Go get ready for bed, I’ll be there in a minute. And we’ll have a _talk_.”

Another nod and Liam started towards the stairs on the left side of the entrance hall.

“Hey!” Lena called after him, making him halt. “Manners.”

Liam winced and ran the few steps back down, standing right in front of Kara.

“Thank you for bringing me home,” he said politely.

Kara nodded as she smiled. “It was no problem, buddy.”

“Goodnight, Kara. I really liked meeting you.” And then, surprising Lena a little, he tentatively stepped forward and hugged the blonde woman around the waist. Liam wasn’t really a hugger around strange people, he didn’t even like to be touched by anyone who wasn’t her or Sam, yet there he was, hugging this woman he only met a few hours before.

His head just reached her ribcage, and when she returned the hug she was careful to only place her arms around his shoulders very gently, not using much pressure, almost as if afraid to do more. Lena saw her smiling a little, relaxing into the hug, and she knew that was the effect Liam had on people.

“I liked meeting you too, Liam,” Kara told him. He pulled back and smiled at her. “Goodnight.”

With a quick glance at his mother, Liam resumed his ascent of the stairs.

Lena stepped closer to Kara, almost as if to call back her attention. “You wouldn’t mind waiting for me for a few minutes as I put him to bed, would you, Ms. Danvers?”

“N-no. No, it’s fine. I can wait.”

Lena’s smile had Kara gulping. “Good. I’ll show you to my office, you can wait there.”

“Sounds great!”

Kara followed Lena through the halls of the mansion, it wasn’t a long walk, but it sure was intimidating for someone who had never been in a house so big.

Lena looked over her shoulder a few times to catch Kara just looking around with a look of wonder on her face. It made Lena smile at the simplicity of the woman, the soft genuine appreciation she seemed to have.

“I hope it’s okay that I gave him a burger,” Kara said timidly. “He was hungry and we passed a diner on the road… I don’t know what he eats normally, but he asked for it. And I know some parents don’t like it when their kids eat something like that without permission; I don’t want him to get into trouble or anything because of me, is just… I thought you should know, in case it could upset his stomach or something.”

Lena was taken aback by the woman’s honesty; most people wouldn’t even bring it up unless questioned, but there she was seeming genuinely concerned with the fact that she might have unknowingly done something to harm the boy. “Don’t worry about it. He’s aware of his food restrictions.” Liam was only allergic to shellfish and soy, and his stomach didn’t agree with some soft drinks and snacks or too much red meat and spices and processed foods, but he learned to be careful and it was extremely rare for him to have a scare in that area; Lena was only called by the school once when he tried Mountain Dew for the first - and only - time and ended up having to go to the hospital.

“Oh, okay,” Kara mumbled and fell silent as she continued to follow Lena.

“I’m sorry he bothered you like that,” Lena said after a while. “He doesn’t normally do things like that.”

“No, no, it was no bother, really,” Kara assured. “He’s a lovely boy. Very smart.”

“He is,” Lena agreed with a smile. “It’s just that, you put in the contract that you didn’t want any contact, so I assumed…”

“It was fine,” Kara insisted. “But… I think we should, we should talk… about that…”

Lena nodded, humming in agreement, of course the situation wasn’t normal or ideal for either of them, it was natural that Kara would want to discuss the fact that Liam just showed up at her door without a warning when she probably didn’t want to meet him, and that she’d be nervous about it as well.

“Here we are,” Lena announced, gesturing to the door of her home office. “You can go in, I won’t be long.”

“Sure.”

\-------

 

Liam had already changed into his pajamas by the time Lena entered his bedroom. He was sitting gingerly on his bed, eyes trained on his lap; he didn’t look up when she walked in, but she could see him tensing up.

“Did you brush your teeth?”

He silently nodded.

Lena sighed and sat down next to him. Neither of them talked.

She watched as he wriggled his fingers on his lap, the telltale sign that he was nervous. She wanted to reach out to him and put him in her lap and just rock him until he fell asleep; but he wasn’t a baby anymore, and she couldn’t coddle him, not after what he did.

Finally, she couldn’t hold it anymore.

“William Alexander, what were you thinking?” she asked, her voice edging on a higher pitch than normal.

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed immediately.

“You can’t just do something like this, you’re smarter than this,” Lena insisted.

“‘m sorry, ma’am.”

“Look at me,” she ordered, her voice still low, but the authority was slipping into her tone.

He did, tears slipping from his eyes, making them impossibly bluer, and all she could think of was how she felt for those hours when she thought she would never see them again.

“Do you have any idea what you put me through? Do you know what could have happened to you? What were you thinking, Liam?” Her voice raised slightly with each question.

Liam shook his head, his tears falling fast down his face; his eyes falling to his lap again. “I just wanted to meet her,” he said meekly.

“Why didn’t you _ask me_?”

Liam hiccupped. “I don- I don’t know.”

“Liam, look at me,” Lena asked, more softly then. He was trembling next to her, his eyes were frightful and sad, and it broke her; she couldn’t take it any longer. “Come here,” she coaxed, her arm wrapping around his tiny shoulders to pull him closer to her, he immediately curled up against her. “You can’t do that kind of thing, Lilo,” she told him softly. “It’s really dangerous, really really dangerous. I can’t lose you, baby; you’re my world.”

“I’m really sorry,” he sniffed.

She squeezed him a little bit and pressed her cheek on the top of his head. “I know you are.” Lena then straightened up again and lifted his chin with gentle fingers. “You can’t ever do something like that again.”

“I won’t,” he said promptly. “I promise.”

“Good.” She hugged him again.

“Mama,” Liam called from against her shirt.

“Yes, baby?”

“Are you upset I wanted to meet her?”

Lena pulled away again to look at him. “No, I’m not,” she told him truthfully. “You know I never met my biological mother, I understand wanting to know,” her voice was soft and she looked right into his eyes as she spoke, hoping he’d understand her fully. “I am upset you didn’t tell me, though.”

Liam lowered his head again.

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Liam nodded but didn’t lift his head.

“Alright, that’s enough for today,” she declared. “Go wash your face and then off to bed you go.”

Liam stood up and started walking to his bathroom, but Lena caught his hand before he could go far.

“Hey,” she called and directed him to stand in front of her. “I love you.”

He nodded, a small smile creeping up his face. “Larger than the sun?” he asked.

“Larger than _all_ the suns,” she told him, opening her arms widely as if to demonstrate.

 “I love you too, mama.”

Lena smiled brightly at him and used her open arms to hug him, she then pressed a sounding kiss to his cheek.

In and out of the bathroom in a few seconds, Liam climbed into his bed and waited for Lena to tuck him in. She stayed next to him, brushing his hair, and it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep. She pressed one last kiss to his forehead and stood up to leave.

\-------

 

Kara felt like an intruder at Lena Luthor’s office. It looked like a sitting room; with a couch and two easy chairs across from it and a coffee table in the middle, a small bar against a wall, many pictures of Liam at various stages of life, but it had a desk at the far end, by the large window. It was probably larger than her living room, and it felt too personal. She felt like she had no place being there.

It was uncomfortable, to say the least. Her nerves getting the best and the worst of her.

She decided to call her friend Dick as she waited.

Dick Grayson was Kara’s best friend ever since she moved to Blüdhaven. They first met at a laundromat near Kara’s apartment building, about a month after Kara moved.

 

\---

_It was 1 am when Kara arrived home, she’d been chasing leads all night long for her first real story for the Blüdhaven Times. In fact, she’d been chasing leads all week._

_Kara barely had had time to unpack, there were still boxes that she hadn’t even opened yet, and she was already running out of clean clothes._

_Her stomach was grumbling, her body begged for rest, but Kara knew that if she didn’t do something about her clothes, she’d be going to work in her sweats soon enough. Gathering all her work clothes together in a duffel bag, along with some regular clothes, Kara left her apartment. She picked up some Chinese takeout on her way to the laundromat._

_Kara’s plan was to have her dinner while her clothes washed and try to get a start on her assignment for the end of the week._

_However, when she entered the laundromat to find a tall black-haired man, dressed only in his boxers and colorful socks, sat atop on out of order machine, reading a magazine as if it was the most regular thing to do at 1:45 am, Kara knew she wasn’t going to get anything done that night._

_Kara carefully made her way to a machine and started unloading her clothes into it._

_“Hey there,” the man greeted cheerfully._

_She looked over her shoulder to find that he had lowered his magazine and was staring at her curiously._

_“Hello,” she said back a little awkwardly._

_“Ran out of clothes too?” he asked casually._

_Kara nodded and went back to the task at hand. “Work clothes,” she answered._

_“Ah!” he exclaimed. “I’m glad I wear a uniform, don’t really need to worry about what to wear.”_

_Kara didn’t answer. She finished loading the machine and started fishing her pocket for coins._

_“I tend to forget that I have to actually do my own laundry now that I live alone,” the man continued._

_“I don’t have much time to do it,” Kara found herself saying._

_“Yeah, I know the feeling.” He sat his magazine aside and jumped out of his sitting machine. “I’m Dick, by the way, Dick Grayson,” he said politely, extending his hand to her._

_“Kara Danvers,” Kara said back, shaking his hand, trying her best to avoid letting her eyes wander down to his large naked chest or his black and blue striped underwear._

_“Well, Kara, I’m sorry for the exhibitionism,” Dick said gesturing to himself. “I’m a spoiled man who never had to lift his own weight around the house and is now paying the price of moving out.”_

_Kara smiled at him, somehow his light joking tone on his self-depreciating words was endearing. “It’s fine, I went through an adaptation period when I left too. Though I was sixteen and in college then.”_

_Dick laughed, it was a warm joyful sound. “Way to make a dude feel worse.”_

_Kara simply shrugged._

_“I used to just take everything home to be cleaned but driving to Gotham every week to have a clean shirt seems like a waste. Besides, my little brothers put up a bet to see how long I would last without asking for help. It’s about pride, you see.”_

_Kara let out a little chuckle and decided to get started on her dinner when her stomach grumbled once more. “Do you want some?” she offered Dick a carton full of pot stickers, her favorite._

_The man accepted, delighted, and they both sat on the floor, making work of the many boxes of Chinese food Kara had purchased; she had intended on storing the leftovers, but she didn’t mind sharing._

_They got to know each other as their clothes washed. Dick, like Kara, had lost his parents when he was young and had been adopted into a nice family who took great care of him, he too had just moved, a few months earlier than Kara though, and from Gotham of all places, he had been an only child from his biological parents but now had three younger brothers who also lived in Gotham, and he was a police officer who dreamed of being a detective. They bonded over the similarities of their lives, their desire to serve and protect the people and stop crime in the best way they knew, their distance from their families, their memories of Gotham… by the time Dick’s clothes were done, they almost didn’t want to part._

_Dick dressed a shirt and some sweatpants straight from the dryer, still warm and smelling of flowers, and gave Kara a charming smile._

_“See you around, Kara Danvers,” he told her as he picked up his bag of clean clothes and shoved his feet on his boots. “Next time dinner is on me,” he added with a wink, and then he threw his bag over his shoulder and left._

_It would be another two weeks before they saw each other again, and just as promised, Dick had food with him, a large box of pizza. Kara enjoyed Dick’s company, their talks, he was funny and witty and extremely smart, and he didn’t try to hit on her as most of the guys who worked with her did, it was refreshing._

_It was few more late-night,_ clothe-washing _meetups when Dick mentioned needing to go up to Gotham to pick some things from his father’s house, but still not having a car, Kara offered him a ride, as she had been planning to go visit her sister._

_And they had been inseparable ever since._

\---

 

“ _Heeeeey sunshine,_ ” Dick’s voice dragged when he picked up. “ _How’s the birthday girl? The boys are sending their love_.”

“I need your help, Dick,” Kara said in lieu of a greeting.

“ _How may I be of service, milady?_ ”

“I need you to find out everything you can on OMAC labs.”

“ _Is it for an article?_ ” he asked. “ _Do you need me to dig graves?_ ”

“I do.”

“ _Oh,” he exclaimed with excitement, “if the late Thomas Wayne could see how his company assets are being used to spy on unsuspecting suspicious companies for journalists,_ ” Dick joked.

“I didn’t say you had to use your father’s computers.”

“ _Oh no, I’m gonna,_ ” he said simply.

Kara hummed. “Okay, send me what you find.”

“ _What exactly am I looking for?_ ”

“Anything suspicious.”

“ _That’s not vague at all._ ”

“I don’t know what I’m looking for, Dick. It’s just a hunch.”

“ _Got it, miss reporter, say no more. Detective Grayson got your back._ ”

“Thanks, Dick.”

“ _Anytime, babe,_ ” he told her, with a smile on his voice. “ _So, doing anything exciting on your birthday night?_ ”

“You could say that.” She heard a noise from outside the office and flinched. “Look, I gotta go, talk to you later.”

“ _Okay. Have a good night. Happy birthday, Kara._ ”

“Thank you. Don’t have too much fun without me.”

“ _I wouldn’t dream of it._ ”

Kara fumbled around with her phone for a while, not quite sure what to do with herself. She considered sitting down in one of the chairs for a while, but she felt awkward and got up, and then she sat back again.

The moment Lena walked back into the room though, Kara got up in a jump, as if sitting down without her in the room wasn’t polite. She swayed awkwardly in place while the woman hardly gave her a second look and walked straight to the bar.

“Can I offer you a drink, Ms. Danvers?” Lena asked politely as she poured a glass of a brown liquid for herself. “I don’t know about you, but after the night I had, I could use some alcohol.”

“Y-yes. Thank you,” Kara stammered. “And it’s Kara, please, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena turned around, with a glass in each hand and a small smirk playing on her lips.  “Well, if I’m calling you Kara,” she said as she handed Kara one of the glasses.

Kara smiled and nodded. “Lena it is.”

“So,” Lena started as she sat down on the armchair across from and gestured for Kara to do the same, “I wanted to thank you again for bringing Liam home.”

“Of course,” Kara said, nodding as she took a sip of what she discovered to be a very strong whiskey; she grimaced at the taste but took another sip. “You didn’t call the police.” It wasn’t a question.

“We didn’t, no,” Lena agreed.

“Why?”

Lena took a long drag of her drink before answering, and Kara was slightly intimidated by her tolerance. “An amber alert would put his face on the news and everyone would know that he was missing, it would make him a target, and it would bring every reporter in the city to my gates.” She shrugged. “My people could have handled it.”

Kara hummed. “They didn’t, though,” she mumbled into her glass.

Lena’s lips twisted into the shadow of a smile. “You’re right. And yet he comes back home without a scratch. Thanks to you.”

Kara blushed a little and looked at her lap, not sure how to take the praise.

“So our situation sure is… delicate,” Lena said carefully.

Kara sniggered “That’s one way to put it.”

Lena raised an eyebrow at the blonde. “How would you put it?”

“Unusual? Unexpected? A little odd?” Kara offered and then shrugged. “Just, out of left field.” Lena’s face was a mix between amused and intrigued, and Kara didn’t know it was possible but somehow the perfectly manicured eyebrow raised even higher, and Kara couldn’t help but blush and try to make herself smaller on the couch. “Sorry, I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. This is… it’s a lot.”

Lena hummed. “I imagine that’s why you put you didn’t want any contact.”

Kara made a noise at the back of her throat, not unlike a groan. “Yeah, that’s the thing: I didn’t.”

“You didn’t say you wanted no contact?” Lena asked confused.

“I didn’t sign a contract. Or donated, for that matter,” Kara told her. “I mean, I did donate, just not for _that_ purpose.”

“You mean my son?” Lena said icily.

“I mean reproducing at all,” Kara explained.

“Is this a joke?” Lena was getting irritated, and Kara was getting antsy by it; Lena Luthor was not the type of woman one would like to irritate.

“It’s not a joke, it’s the truth,” Kara insisted.

“I don’t know what you’re playing at, Ms. Danvers,” Lena started but Kara was talking before she could finish her threat.

“I’m not playing at anything, Le-Ms. Luthor,” she corrected herself. “I’m just telling you the truth. I didn’t donate, I would never. Not that I think there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just a personal thing.” She took a deep breath and continued. “I lost my family when I was really young, and I was adopted by a lovely family whom I love very much, but I never felt like I belonged, I have always missed that special connection you share with someone who shares the same blood as you. Not that I think blood is necessary for a family, or that I’m not aware that a lot of people have terrible relationships with blood relatives,” Kara stuttered her way through her explanation. “But I had a great family, and we had a saying: ‘blood bonds us all’; and I always took it as to mean to love and respect all creatures because all life is bonded by blood, but it also means family. And family has always been important to me, and I thought I was alone in life, that I would never get to see someone who looked like me, shared the same features... I could never donate and then just go on with my life knowing that somewhere in the world there’s an entire little person who is a little part of me, who shares the same blood as I, the same heritage, who can continue the legacy my parents left behind.”

“He’s not a part of you,” Lena bit off, the vein in her forehead popping to show her anger. “He’s not your legacy. He is my son, and you’re not taking him away from.”

“Oh, gosh, no,” Kara was quick to correct. “No, no, that’s not... That’s not what I meant. He’s your son, I don’t want to take him from you.”

“Then what?”

“I’m just telling you I didn’t do it. I didn’t donate, at least not knowingly, but I... I know he’s... That I’m the...”

“Donor?”

Kara nodded. “He showed up at my door saying he was my son and I thought ‘surely this kid is crazy, I can’t have a son that I don’t know about’ but he was so sure, so confident, impressively so for someone his age, and I... I looked into his eyes and I just knew. I knew he was telling the truth. Not only that he believed he was the truth, but that I truly was his biological parents. I don’t know how it could be, but... He has my father’s eyes.” Kara looked down at her lap, wringing her fingers nervously.

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry, I tend to ramble when I’m nervous,” Kara apologized. “I just, I thought you should know because that’s… it’s not right, and maybe you could look into it to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Lena narrowed her eyes at Kara and the blonde flinched. “Are you saying your DNA was stolen?”

“I wouldn’t say stolen... Maybe it was mislabeled?”

“Mislabeled?” Lena let out a dry chuckle. “You think an important research facility like Cadmus would mislabel genetic material like that?”

Kara shrugged, feeling like a child trying to prove their innocence to a disbelieving adult. “I don’t know, okay. I don’t want to go off accusing anyone without proof, but maybe you should talk to the person in charge of your treatment, just to make sure no mistake was made.”

“My mother was in charge of my treatment,” Lena said curtly.

“Shit.”

Lena smirked victoriously. “Yeah. You want to change your speech? I don’t know what you think you’ll get from this little rouse of yours,” the Luthor accused. “Didn’t peg you for a con artist, Ms. Danvers.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“No. I’m not changing ‘my speech’ because I wasn’t lying. I’m _not_ lying,” Kara insisted. “I’m telling the truth; the only donation I did was for a leukemia treatment and I can prove it because it’s on my medical record.” She looked firmly at Lena, highly offended by the accusation. “I don’t want money, I’m not gonna sue, and I have no intention of taking your son away from you. But... He’s all I have left of my family, and I would like to get to know him. And I know you probably don’t trust me, and that we have to talk about this more seriously, but... I made him a promise, and I would like to keep it, if that’s okay with you.”

“What kind of promise?”

“Just that. I wanted to take him home and he said he would only tell me where he lived if I promised to spend some time with him... He is very convincing.” She let herself smile for a second. “I don’t want that to have been just something I told him so he’d tell me what I wanted. I don’t like lies.”

“You got some nerve asking me permission to be around my son after all that you said, Ms. Danvers.”

Lena’s tone made Kara want to be swallowed by the couch.

Lena pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed deeply. “It’s late,” she said and looked up at Kara again. “I can’t deal with any more of this today.”

“I understan-”

“No, you don’t,” Lena cut her off. “I need you to leave.”

Kara swallowed and nodded, getting up without a word.

“But,” Lena continued before Kara could step away and the woman froze. “If you could come back in the morning for us to discuss this with clear heads.”

Kara nodded, with more warmth this time. “I would like that.”

Lena nodded back at her and all but conjured her phone, with a few touches to it she looked back at Kara. “Security will show you out,” she informed.

Kara wanted to say that was not necessary, but she wasn’t sure she could find her way out on the maze-like corridors of the mansion. “Thank you,” she said instead. And all Lena did was nod again. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then, Ms. Luthor,” Kara added unsurely.

“Until tomorrow, Ms. Danvers,” Lena agreed, without looking at Kara anymore.

Kara stood awkwardly in front of the woman, who was now acting as if she wasn’t in the room anymore and was sipping her whiskey until there was a knock on the door and Lena called out for the person to enter. The security guard, Marcus, as Lena had called him, led Kara to the front door without a word, and simply nodded at her when she thanked him.

She took a deep breath when she was finally back into the safety of her car but didn’t let herself dwell in it for too long, she just had to get out of the estate before someone changed their mind and decided to blame Kara for everything.

\-------

 

Lena gulped her glass of whiskey in one go and then filled it back up and downed that all at once as well.

It was going to be a long weekend.

Not even fooling herself into thinking she could try to sleep that night, Lena headed to Liam’s room after her fourth glass of whiskey; not even carrying about putting the glass away, the maid would get it and it would be clean and in its right place when she went down to the office in the morning.

She entered the room quietly and lowered herself on the ‘treasure chest’ right next to the bed, where Liam kept his favorite toys; she spent the night there, watching the rhythmic rise and fall of Liam’s chest as he slept, too afraid that if she closed her eyes for even a moment he would disappear again.

  

* * *

 

 

 

Kara wandered around the city she had only visited a handful of times, driving aimlessly, numbly through the streets, finally letting the events of the night take in.

As improbable and absurd as it was, Kara believed the little boy, as well as his mother, were telling the truth, and that she somehow was his biological parent.

During the few hours she spent with him in the car, and in the restaurant at which they stopped by, Kara could see a lot of herself on him, and she knew she wasn’t only seeing it because she wanted to see. His hair was a lot darker than that of anyone in her direct family, although her cousin Clark did have black hair, and his skin was a few shades lighter than hers, but his nose and his chin looked like hers, and there was familiarity in the way his light freckles spread on his face, from his chin, and over his lips all over his cheeks and covering his nose and reaching his eyelids and even forehead, and his faded eyebrows, and the way his dimples set around his mouth when he talked; and of course there were his eyes, the deep blue with darker edges that Kara had only ever seen in three people in her life before that day: her father, her grandfather, and herself.

She identified a few of her mannerisms on the boy as well, not too strongly, but the way he fidgeted when he was nervous and rambled when excited, were definitely hers, she’d met his mother, there was no way that woman was ever anything but cool and collected. Lena Luthor did not fidget or ramble.

Eventually, Kara ended up at a cheap motel room with tacky 80’s deco, feeling as lonely as she ever felt since moving out for college. She needed to talk to someone. She needed to talk to her sister.

Alex picked up the phone with a tone of worry already. “ _Kara? What’s wrong?_ ”

“Nothing’s wrong, Alex,” Kara assured, but she knew her voice didn’t help her case.

“ _Kar, you don’t sound right,_ ” Alex said softly. “ _What is it?_ ”

“I just… what do you know about same-sex reproduction?”

“ _What? Kara, you didn’t call me in the middle of the night to ask about this, did you? It’s nearly 10 pm which makes 1 am for you._ ”

“Alex, please,” Kara insisted. “This is important.”

“ _Is this for an article?_ ” But Kara didn’t answer; how could she? Alex sighed on the other line. “ _Fine. I don’t know much. It’s not my area, but I know some basics_ ,” she told Kara. “ _You know how basic reproduction works, right?_ ”

“Uhum.”

“ _Okay, so this is a little bit complicated, it’s kind of like a stem cell treatment, you know, kinda risky and frowned upon, very controversial, only Project Cadmus is legally allowed to perform the procedure which Lillian Luthor created, it’s her patent,_ ” Alex started. “ _What it does is they take a bit of bone marrow from both parties and rearrange the cells to make them work like gametes and then they join these two DNAs to make an embryo. What they do about the sex defining chromosomes is unclear still._ ”

“Okay,” Kara said slowly. “So it really is possible for two women to have a child together, a male child.”

“ _Yeah, but you’d have to be loaded. It is the most expensive fertility treatment in the world._ ” Alex let out a little snort. “ _Not your typical IVF._ ”

“Alright.”

“ _Was that all you wanted to know?_ ”

“Yeah, thanks,” Kara said softly. “Listen, Alex, there’s… there’s something I need to-”

Kara was interrupted by a weird noise that came out of Alex’s throat, somewhat between a choke and a strangled squeal, but the surprise was clear.

“ _Hey, Kar, can we talk tomorrow?_ ” Alex asked, her voice completely changed to something Kara couldn’t quite put her finger on it. “ _Maggie just arrived home and I start my shift early tomorrow, there are a few things her and I need to discuss._ ”

Kara deflated. “No, yeah, it’s fine.” It wasn’t like she was about to tell her sister the most important news of her life since she got NSYNC tickets for her 13th birthday.

“ _I’ll call you tomorrow_ ,” Alex said with certainty. “ _Love you_.”

“Love you too,” Kara whispered in the phone as Alex ended the call, before dropping herself, defeated, on the motel bed, arms spread.

Kara stared at the ceiling for a few minutes; she still needed to talk, needed to share, needed to not be alone at that moment. She reached for her phone and called her go-to person for when she was feeling low or conflicted, or like everything was just too much and she needed to air it out, without bothering her sister to unload her shit.

“ _Go for Grayson,_ ” the warm cheerful voice greeted almost immediately.

“Dick, you’re a man, right?” Kara started airily.

“ _That’s what it says in my tinder profile, yes,_ ” he answered.

“What… what would you do if someone showed up with a child and said you’re the father?”

“ _Probably ask dad for an expert advice,_ ” he joked.

“Dick, I’m serious,” Kara insisted.

“ _I don’t know, Kar_ ,” he said. “ _I’d make sure the child is really mine before doing anything._ ”

“What if you already knew.”

“ _Gee, Danvers, why the interview? Are you dating someone’s baby daddy?_ ”

“Not quite.”

“ _Someone’s baby mama, then? Kara you dawg_.”

“I’m not dating anyone. I just… I needed to talk.”

“ _Okay, okay, talk._ ”

“So a child shows up claiming they’re yours, what do you do?”

“ _I already know they’re telling the truth, right?_ ”

“Yeah.”

“ _Well, I don’t know, I’d make sure they are well taken care of, that they’re happy and healthy, you know, that they’re doing good. And I’d want to be a part of their life, make up for the lost time, step up as a father, I guess._ ”

“Right. What about the other parent? Wouldn’t you care about them? How they’d feel about it.”

“ _I mean, if the child is mine I have some sort of right, they gotta accept that. I wouldn’t just pull a custody battle out of nowhere or anything, but definitely claim my place in their life._ ”

“That makes sense.”

“ _Any particular reason for these strange, strange questions?_ ”

“Yes. Just not one I’m ready to share just yet.”

“ _Alright, I can respect that,_ ” Dick said gently. “ _Is everything good with you?_ ”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“ _Will be?_ ”

“Will be,” Kara confirmed.

“ _You want to talk about something else?_ ”

“How was the gala?”

“ _What makes you think it’s over?_ ”

“I don’t hear the sound of jewels clinking in the background.”

“ _Haha. You’re hilarious_ ,” Dick deadpanned. “ _It’s not completely over yet, the boys and Steph are still going, but most of the guests have dispersed already,_ ” he informed. “ _I’m waiting for the perfect moment to sneak into father’s lair to look into that stuff you asked me to_.”

“You make your father sound like such a sketchy businessman.”

“ _Maybe he is_ ,” Dick said with mirth in his voice. “ _Speaking of which, you know what tonight’s secret was?_ ”

“What?”

“ _His engagement announcement._ ”

“His what now?”

“ _I know! Can’t believe it myself, but Bruce Wayne has finally realized that brooding isn’t all there is to life and managed to pop the question before all his sons left to live their lives and he was left alone forever in an empty mansion,_ ” he said with humor.

“You think that’s just him not wanting to be alone?”

“ _Oh, no, he’s truly happy with Selina; they’re good together._ ”

“Well, that’s good.”

“ _Yeah. Nothing like a good ol’ love story. I think Selina will be good for the family._ ”

“That’s really good.”

“ _Feeling better yet?_ ”

“Not quite…”

“ _Will the promise of pizza, pot stickers, and ice cream help?_ ”

Kara grinned. “Definitely!”

“ _Okay, Sunday then, when I get back._ ”

“Yes!”

“ _See you then_.”

“See you.”

“ _Call me if you need anything_.”

“Will do.”

“ _I’ll let you know when I have something on OMAC labs_.”

“Oh, thanks. Uhm… See if there’s anything relating it to Cadmus.”

“ _Now that’s something to work with! I’ll talk to you later sunshine._ ”

“Bye.”

Kara let her phone drop next to her on the bed. She would have to tell Alex eventually, once Alex had the time for her; she had the feeling there was something Alex wasn’t telling her, something big. It could be nothing, could be just Kara reading too much into their talks, or being hurt that Alex was blowing her off before she got the chance to really talk to her, but Kara’s instincts were tingling, and Kara’s instincts were rarely wrong. There had been a few times, usually involving her own relationships, like that time with Lucy, and then Siobhan right after, but Alex always said she was a bit oblivious when it came to people she was into and people who were into her.

It would have been so easy to just tell Dick about what happened with Liam and Lena, but she felt like she would be betraying her sister if she shared such a big thing with Dick before telling Alex, even if Alex wasn’t telling her whatever it was she wasn’t telling her.

Kara sighed loudly. Sleeping was her best option for now; she was exhausted. Luckily, she had her gym bag with her on her truck, from when she meant to go to the gym earlier that week but then just forgot with all the work she had to do. So at least she didn’t have to sleep in her jeans.

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Did you get any sleep?” Sam asked as she perched herself on the edge of the bathtub.

Lena chuckled, throwing her head back to rinse the shampoo from her hair; she ran a hand on her hair, shaking the tresses as it went down over her scalp. “You think I was in any condition to sleep after yesterday?” She peaked her head from under the water and glanced at Sam through the glass of the shower. “No, Sam, I could hardly blink all night. I only left his side when I heard Gwen cleaning the hallway in the morning.”

“I’m so sorry, honey,” Sam said softly. “And what about _her_?”

Lena didn’t need to ask to know who was the _her_ Sam asked about.

“It was really her,” Lena said with a sigh. “I checked.”

“Did she want something? How did she find him?”

“ _She_ didn’t. Apparently, Liam found her. I found photos of her file on his backpack,” she explained. “God, I shouldn’t have kept that file out in the open.”

“Hey!” Sam all but yelped. “This was not your fault.”

“As if,” Lena chuckled dryly. “I’m the mother.”

“He is his own person,” Sam argued.

“That I raised,” Lena argued back, “and neglected, apparently.”

“Oh you shut up,” Sam said with a gasp, getting up from the bathtub and crossing the bathroom to stand in front of the shower glass. “Stop throwing all this shit on yourself.” Sam slammed a finger against the glass door as if she was doing it at Lena’s chest, and Lena recoiled even with the protection of the tempered glass. “You always do this, you always blame yourself for everything that happens and you just gotta accept that there are things out of your control. Okay? You raised an incredibly smart and kind and wonderful little boy while commanding a goddamn multinational corporation, and you did a fucking great job at both. You’re out there making the world a better place for yours and other people’s children and yet you still find time to bake cookies and play Mario Kart and you never missed a school event in eight years.”

“Technically he’s only been in school for six years,” Lena quipped but shut herself up when she noticed Sam’s glare.

“The point is,” Sam continued irritated, “as I said before, you are an amazing mother, you don’t fucking neglect your son. So he went looking for his other parent, so what? I did.”

“What?”

Sam shrugged. “Never found much, but I was convinced that if I crossed the border to Mexico I would find my parents somehow.” She shook her head at the thought. “And I’m sure you tried to find out as well.”

“I hired a P.I. when I was in college, she died when I was four,” Lena said.

“See?” Sam insisted. “So I don’t know why you’re being so hard on yourself.”

“She wants to meet him,” Lena said after a long pause. “Properly so; spend some time with him. Said that’s what he wanted, that he made her promise she’d do it.” Lena hugged herself. “I don’t think this is the proper moment for this conversation.”

Sam shrugged. “It’s a nice view, babe.”

Lena rolled her eyes. She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, gratefully accepting the fluffy robe Sam offered her; she twisted her hair and let it drip before tying it in a knot with itself.

“Come here, honey,” Sam said softly, taking Lena’s hand and leading her out of the bathroom, through the closet, and into her bedroom.

They both sat on the sofa in the sitting area side of the room, and Sam put her arm around Lena’s shoulder, but Lena didn’t move into her comforting warmth as she normally would.

“I just feel like I’m not enough for him, Sam,” Lena confessed. “That him going after her is like a cry for help, the proof that I’m doing something wrong, that I’m not good enough. And I know you said that I’m a good mother,” she added as if sensing the argument forming on Sam’s lips.

“A wonderful mother,” Sam pointed out.

“But if he went through all the trouble to plan this trip to go find her, clearly there’s something missing for him.”

“Okay, that’s not true or fair to yourself, Lena,” Sam said as she pulled Lena to her, and despite her best efforts, Lena couldn’t help but curl up against her best friend, letting her head fall on her shoulder. “He adores you. Him wanting to know her has nothing to do with you not being enough for him. He just wants to know where the other half of him came from. I’m sure if you asked him he’d tell you just that.”

“Which I’m not going to, because I’m not unloading my insecurities on my eight-year-old son,” Lena snapped.

“That’s not what I meant, honey.”

Lena signed. “I’m sorry. I’m stressed.”

“It’s fine,” Sam assured, kissing Lena’s temple.

“She said some things,” Lena started, leaving that hanging in the air for Sam to pick up.

Sam frowned. “What kind of things?”

Lena shrugged. “Like how she didn’t donate her DNA and she doesn’t know how Cadmus got it.”

Sam pulled away from Lena to look at her face. “WHAT?”

“She not so subtly implied that she thinks her DNA was stolen.”

“And what do you think of that?”

Lena bit her lip as she looked down at the ground. “I don’t know what to make of it, Sam,” she confessed. “That’s an absurd accusation, completely ridiculous, Cadmus is a serious research lab that does things by the book despite rumors, and Lillian is many things, but a mad scientist who goes around stealing DNA? That’s… too much of a telenovela drama. I trust my mother would never do something so… evil.”

“I sense a ‘but’ in your voice.”

“But,” Lena said with a nod, “there’s just something about her. I don’t know what it is. I know I just met here, but, something about her made me want to believe her. And I think a part of me did,” she told Sam, who looked at her with intrigue. “That’s why I invited her over today.”

“You did what?”

Lena scoffed. “Oh, don’t sound so shocked, we clearly need to talk about the whole situation. And she said Liam made her promise she’d spend some time with him in exchange of him telling her where he lived, and that did sound like something he’d do so I didn’t have much choice,” she explained. “Besides, she did bring him home to me, if it wasn’t for the stolen DNA story I’m pretty sure I’d throw a party for her, with a banquet and everything, maybe some fireworks.”

Sam laughed at that; she knew Lena wasn’t exaggerating. “And when is she coming?”

“Well, I told her to come around in the morning,” Lena said with a shrug. “I’m not really sure what she made of it. I half expected her to camp out outside the gates waiting for the sun to come up.”

Sam laughed again. “That bad?”

“She just has this, I don’t know, this air about her, she seems very insistent.”

“If by insistent you mean stubborn as shit, I think I might know someone like that,” Sam teased.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lena mocked, feigning ignorance.

“Right,” Sam chuckled. “I’m sure this encounter will be a true clash of wills. I’ll try to keep away from the shrapnels.”

Lena raised an eyebrow at her.

“What? You think I’ll leave you alone to meet her this time around? No way, Luthor, I got your back.” She smiled at Lena in the same way she did when she ‘informed’ Lena she was going to be Liam’s godmother regardless of Lena’s choice, and saw a tear slip down Lena’s cheek. “Aaww, you big softy, come here,” she cooed and pulled Lena into another hug. “I love you, you idiot. You’re my ride or die; you don’t have to deal with this alone, okay?”

“Thank you so much, Sam,” Lena mumbled against Sam’s neck.

“Anytime, sweetie. Now get your sexy ass dressed so we can have breakfast because I’m starving right now.”

Lena laughed and got up, whipping at her eyes as she made her way to her closet.

“And you better dress fine as fuck, I want to see that girl’s knees tremble when she sees you. We need all the leverage we can get, here. We’re already in your mansion, you better channel your inner socialite and serve me some trophy wife about to meet her husband’s mistress, oh, better yet, channel your mother, ready to commit her murder and go out to brunch afterwards. I want to see fear in her eyes.”

“Yes, cuz Lillian always goes out for brunch after committing felonies,” Lena said sarcastically.

“It’s her appetite opener,” Sam said completely serious.

“You know, one of these days she will hear the things you say about her.”

“Yes, and the next day I’ll be dead; the last thing I’ll see will be that creepy ass murder smile she has when people piss her off but she doesn’t want to show it because she’s too classy, you know the one.”

Lena could only laugh at her friend’s words.

\-------

 

Liam woke up on that Saturday morning with his mother calling him softly, tickling his feet and stomach to get him to wake up and smiling brightly when he opened his eyes.

“Morning Lilo,” she said barely above a whisper.

“Morning mama,” he mumbled to her, rubbing one of his eyes with the back of his hand.

“It’s sunny, and I love you,” she told him when he opened his eyes again. It was something she did every morning when she woke him up, and she did manage to be there to wake him up most mornings, she’d tell him how the day was, and that she loved him.

“I’m sleepy, and I love you,” he answered in a yawn.

His mother smiled even brighter at him. “Give me my hug,” she said, and he threw himself at her, almost making them both fall off the bed. She laughed at it and hugged him tightly. “I love you so much, baby.”

“Love you too, mama.”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she told him.

“I’m sorry I left without telling you.”

She pulled away and held his face in her hands. “You’re okay, you’re safe, you’re not hurt, that’s all that matters.”

He nodded, but he wasn’t really agreeing to it, more just letting her know he heard her.

“However,” his mother continued, “you are so grounded.”

“What?” he all but squeaked.

“Oh, yes, _grounded_ ,” she repeated, sounding out the word slowly as if to make sure he really got it. “No video games, no play dates, and no movie night for a week.”

“But, mama,” he whined.

“And we’re not going to the planetarium next week anymore.”

Liam couldn’t even whine anymore, he settled for just pouting.

“What you did was really bad, Liam, I need you to understand this,” she told him seriously. “Not only was it very dangerous, and left me and aunt Sam worried sick, but it was wrong. You lied, and you took money without asking, you went to another state without telling anyone, do you have any idea how bad that is? It’s not just walking down to the park across mama’s office to get ice cream, it was another state, miles and miles away. I need you to understand the severity of this, how wrong and dangerous it was.”

He nodded and lifted his eyes to meet hers shamefully. “Yes, ma’am.”

His mother sighed and looked at him with that crinkle in her forehead that told him she was worried or thinking too hard. “Now go get dressed. Aunt Sam is coming for breakfast. I’m going to have a quick shower before going down.” She pressed a kiss on his forehead when she finished talking and he nodded.

“Okay.”

Pajamas changed into day clothes, hair and teeth brushed, face washed and shoes laced, Liam climbed down the stairs in time to see his godmother walking into his home with her daughter Ruby next to her.

“Morning aunt Sam,” he greeted as he ran to her. He hugged her by the waist, not very tight, and she scratched his hair on the back of his head instead of hugging him back.

“Hey sweetie,” she greeted warmly, in her very motherly way. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you ready to be grounded for life?”

He winced, and she laughed.

“Hey Ruby,” he greeted the teenager then, not even stepping closer to her to try and hug her.

She smiled at him, gave him a little wave and said: “Good morning, Liam.”

“Is your mother upstairs?” Aunt Sam asked him.

Liam nodded. “Yes. She’s in the shower.”

Aunt Sam nodded, as adults do to show they understand what is being said. “Could you kids go play for a little while at the playroom? Us grownups need to have a little talk,” she told them.

Both kids nodded and started walking towards the playroom of the manor.

“So how is she?” Ruby asked conspiratorially, whispering to Liam as they crossed the hall. “Your other mother?”

Liam smiled a little. “She is so pretty, Ruby. Like, just as pretty as our moms, but different, you know?” he told her. “She is taller than my mama, and she looks like she does sports, and she has blonde hair and blue eyes.”

“Like yours?”

He nodded, with a big smile on his face. “And she is really nice and smart, she speaks ten languages, and she likes Star Wars and Harry Potter and her second favorite superhero is Thor, she’s a journalist, but not the kind of journalist that my mama doesn’t like, and her favorite food is pizza _and_ pot stickers and her favorite color is red, and she likes those old bands my mama likes, like those ones with a lot of singers,” he listed all in one breath.

“Wow, she sounds cool!”

“So cool,” Liam agreed.

“When will you see her again?” Ruby asked.

Liam’s face fell a little. “I don’t know, mama sent me to bed before I could ask her,” he said practically pouting, “but she promised to hang out with me,” he added, getting excited again. “I can’t wait to show her my room!”

“You think she’ll want to marry your mom? The parents always end up together in movies, you know,” Ruby pointed out.

Liam shrugged. “I don’t know. I would like that. That would be cool, right? Having two moms.”

“Yeah, it’d be awesome.”

\-------

 

Kara didn’t have a very good night of sleep.

In fact, Kara didn’t have any night of sleep at all; more like a 2-hour nap that left her feeling more tired than she was before she went to bed.

The bed of the motel room she rented was lumpy and uncomfortable, the room was somehow colder than the outside, the bathroom sink wouldn’t stop leaking, and the streets outside were so busy and _loud_. All of that on top of the whole thing with Liam did a lot to keep her uneasy and awake the entire night, dread and anxiety filling her insides.

She truly thought that sleeping on it, having time to process the situation, would have made it easier, but there really is no easy way to deal with allegedly having a child you didn’t even know you could have, or with the fact that your DNA may have been stolen to produce said child.

The thing Kara was most afraid to deal with, however, was one Lena Luthor; the mother of her alleged child. That was such a strange sentence for Kara to even think of; she always thought that if she ever thought of another woman as ‘the mother of her child’ she’d be at least considering getting married, not just meeting her for the first time after the woman spent hours thinking her son had been kidnapped. And as if the situation wasn’t complicated enough, Kara managed to anger the woman already; a woman considered to be one of the most cunning businesswomen in the country, a woman who happened to be the heiress of the most powerful and feared family of that side of the world, a woman who was rumored to make grown men cry with only a look and a few words, and as someone who had been on the receiving end of Lena’s displeasure, Kara half believed in that one.

Regardless of what was true and what was just meanspirited rumors made to tear down a powerful woman, Kara was a wreck. And Kara’s way to deal with nerves was to gorge herself in fried sugary goodness and caffeine.

That’s how she saw herself stuffing her face with donuts and washing them down with an over-sugared cappuccino in her car early in the morning. She had devoured three donuts before she decided to slow down; she knew she had to think about the whole thing, and clearly so, about how she was going to handle it all, how she was going to tell her sister and, oy vey, her mother.

She would probably have to get a hold of a lawyer, those were always good to have on call, and as much as she believed in the whole thing – after all the Luthors didn’t exactly have a reason to go around making false paternity claims, nor was Lena Luthor actively aware of her son’s search for Kara and yet she had all that knowledge on her – she needed to make sure, even if just for formalities. Yet she had no idea how she would even face the Luthor woman after the previous night, or what she would say to her, she didn’t even know what she wanted herself, though if Liam was her son Kara knew she wanted to be part of his life, even if not in an effective parenting role.

But she needed to stop cowering in her car and head to the Luthor Manor at some point; during the morning, preferably, she didn’t want to irritate Lena Luthor any more than she already did.

\-------

 

“Hey, aunt Lena!” Ruby exclaimed when Lena and Sam walked into the playroom where the kids were building something with Legos, she got up and walked towards the grownups.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Lena greeted her, opening her arms to accept the girl’s hug. “How is soccer?”

“It’s good,” Ruby told her with a grin. “Coach said I won’t start on the bench next game!”

Lena smiled at the girl. “That’s so great, Ruby.”

“Yeah!”

Lena was still hugging Lena when her security guard, Marcus, showed up to announce that the one Kara Danvers and her monstrous car were at the gates.

“Thank you, Marcus, you can let her in,” Lena told him and the man nodded before pressing his ear piece to give out the order to open the gates. “Please direct her to the dining room.”

The man nodded again and left.

“Looks like it’s going to be an interesting breakfast,” Sam quipped next to her, and Lena could already feel a headache building up.

It only increased when she noticed how Liam’s face lit up, full of hope, at the thought of the blonde woman.

They all made their way to the dining room, where the staff was just finishing setting the table, if Lillian was there, every single one of them would scramble away in fear, but Lena made sure they knew that being seen wasn’t going to cost them their jobs.

It wasn’t long until they heard two sets of steps approaching, and it was a tense moment when the blonde woman emerged into view and her eyes locked with Lena. Lena’s entire body was buzzing with a strange sensation she couldn’t quite point a finger to, she didn’t understand the reaction her body had to this woman, but before she could even think about it, Liam’s voice was pulling her out of her thoughts.

“KARA!” The boy exclaimed happily, and to everyone’s surprise, threw himself at the woman. “You came!”

Kara stumbled back a little with the force of the boy’s full body tackle, blinking in shock for a second before returning the hug gingerly. “Well, I did promise,” she said then, smiling charmingly at the boy.

Lena could feel Sam’s bafflement as well as her own as her friend stood rigidly next to her, watching the scene.

“Am I seeing what I’m seeing?” Sam whispered to her, but Lena didn’t get a chance to reply.

Kara raised her eyes to the other woman again, an electric-like sensation running up Lena’s spine as their eyes met, erasing all the words from her mind. Kara smiled timidly at the two women, with another one of her awkward waves as she mumbled a ‘good morning’.

“This is going to be awkward,” Sam mumbled as she raised her eyebrows at the blonde in lieu of a greeting.

 _Well, fuck_ , was once more all Lena could think as she stared at Kara Danvers.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick thing here before you go, the science on this, again, is not real. I made a little mix of actual real-life science (but very little) with comic logic and based it on how the birthing matrix is explained in a few comics; if you follow my other work (affectionately named _Wanna Be Friends_ cuz I made a long ass title) you'll likely spot the similarities in there.
> 
> So I hope it lived up to the first chapter, even if it was a little slow imo. Thank you for reading.  
> Let me know what you think in the comments here or on my tumblr @myheartisbro-ken, where I'm also open to talk about the world cup and its brilliant memes.  
> Bye!


	3. Second Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara's and Lena's second meeting goes as well as the first one did. Lena and Sam get to know Kara Danvers better in a very awkward breakfast. Lena makes a decision. Kara pays someone a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About a week ago someone asked me if I was going to update in the near future, and I said no, you know, like a liar, cuz here I am. Kidding, I had been stuck in a scene for over a month and I managed to get my head out of my ass and finish this chapter. Initially, it was going to end very differently, but that felt like a good place to end for now. So finally here it is.
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

 

Samantha Arias never actively thought about what Kara Danvers would look like. Sure she knew all about the woman, everything Lena found out before going through with the procedure she had told Sam, but she never truly cared to imagine how the woman looked like.

However, when the blonde girl in tight white jeans, a space themes sweater, and freaking pig-tails, that had stepped out of a bright blue pickup truck, awkwardly introduced herself as Kara Danvers, Sam couldn’t deny she was not what she had expected. Her surprise only tenfolded when the very same woman stepped into the dining room of the Luthor Manor the next morning wearing the same white pants, but with only a white t-shirt above it, French tucked, short sleeves rolled up, setting nicely on her surprisingly muscular biceps, followed by an assortment of small tattoos circling one of her well-defined forearms, a large black leather-strapped wristwatch in the other, a large golden ring on the tattooed arm’s hand, a low ponytail and no glasses, looking breathless as her eyes ranked over Lena’s body in what she probably thought was subtlety.

 _Oh, fuck me_ , Sam thought, _she’s a lesbian_.

Sam had never felt such strong lesbian energy from anyone in her entire life, and she played softball in college. It was truly impressive how the girl went from a dorky little librarian apprentice to a stud with only the removal of a sweater and pig-tails.

The reason it mattered, was that Sam had never met a lesbian or bisexual woman who didn’t develop a crush on Lena Luthor about five minutes into meeting her. It was biologically impossible. Even straight women had crushes on Lena, and of course they did, Lena looked like _that_. She could already tell that her plan of intimidating the girl would work even better than intended, because Lena looked more like a five-course meal in her black slacks and low cut deep blue blouse than she already normally did, and the poor girl was having a hard time processing the sight in front of her.

Luckily for everyone involved, Liam decided that moment to express his excitement at the blonde’s presence. However, the way he expressed said excitement had Sam stunned: Liam hugged the woman.

William Alexander Luthor was hugging a woman he just met. Liam, the boy who flinched away from his own grandmother’s physical contact, and everyone else’s who wasn’t his mother, or Sam, was tackle-hugging a woman he just met less than 24 hours previous. Liam didn’t even hug Ruby and they grew up together.

“You came,” Sam heard Liam say.

Kara looked as perplexed as the rest of them, stumbling slightly before she managed to return the hug, but she plastered on a sweet smile the moment Liam looked up at her, and Sam was impressed.

“Well, I did promise,” Kara said charmingly.

If the situation wasn’t so complex, Sam could see herself liking this woman; Lena was right, there was just something about her.

But as it was, Sam couldn’t be sure if she had been breathing for the last minutes.

“Am I seeing what I’m seeing?” she asked in a whisper to Lena, but the woman was slightly farther gone than Sam herself and didn’t seem to have heard her.

And then Kara looked up with her baby blues and a faint little blush on her cheeks, and Sam heard Lena do a little intake of breath like Kara’s eyes shocked her. Kara’s greeting was awkward, a shy smile and a wave, while mumbling ‘good morning’ at Lena and Sam, and Sam could see feel her interest in all this drama increasing; she raised her eyebrows in greeting.

“This is going to be awkward,” she breathed out.

It took a few moments for Lena to recover, but when she did, she straightened her posture and cleared her throat.

“Have you had breakfast yet, _Ms. Danvers_?” Lena asked, her tone polished, but adding a dry lilt to the name.

“I, uh…” Kara stuttered, seeming a little crestfallen when Lena directed her by her last name. “I could eat.” She added a little smile that she probably thought was cute and charming, but just made Lena scoff next to Sam.

“Well, then please join us,” Lena offered. “You arrived at the perfect time, we were just about to start.”

Sam was always impressed by how Lena could remain cool and collected in the face of stress, but she had to admit she was a little impressed by how unbothered Lena sounded while the vein in her forehead popped almost aggressively.

“Sure, thank you,” Kara mumbled weakly.

Liam beamed up at Kara and grabbed her hand. “You can sit next to me,” he told her, tugging her towards the large table, and Sam was concerned for the integrity of Lena’s teeth as she saw the woman’s jaw clenching a bit too hard.

Before Lena could make her way to the table, Sam grabbed her arm slightly and made Lena look at her for a second, she raised her eyebrows concerned at Lena, giving her a look that she usually did in business meetings, asking if Lena was okay to go on and not too stressed, to which Lena shook her head dismissively and passed by her.

To say it was one of the most awkward meals Sam, and possibly everyone else at the table - excluding Liam who, bless his heart, was oblivious to it all - ever had, would be an understatement.

\-------

 

Kara wasn’t sure she ever had a tenser breakfast in her life. She couldn’t say meal, because the night Alex came out to Eliza after planning it and talking over with Kara for a week had been pretty nerve-wracking on its own, but this breakfast was definitely a runner-up.

Despite being the one who invited her there, Lena seemed visibly displeased with her presence, though perhaps Kara’s timing might not have been the best and she should have stalled a bit more around Metropolis.

But it was too late to refuse the invitation for breakfast when she was already in the dining room with an armful of the excited young boy looking up at her with glinting blue eyes and the intimidating way Lena said her name while looking like a Hollywood actress doing a tour of her mansion for Vogue. Kara doubted her ability to even speak at that moment, let alone stand her ground. It was all too much for her, Liam bursting with happiness practically vibrating as he hugged her, Lena in her low cut blouse with her breasts clearly pushed up looking at Kara and pretending like she wasn’t thinking of five possible ways to murder her, Sam behind her just glaring at Kara and looking entirely too ready to hide a body if the need arrived, the teenage girl standing awkwardly on the side looking at her curiously yet still cautious of the atmosphere of the room, the house staff scurrying out of the dining room to probably hide in the kitchen; Kara felt like she’d pass out at any minute. And she knew it would be rude and, most importantly, way too awkward to do anything but accept the invitation and join them. Before she knew, Liam was already grabbing her hand and tugging her towards the table.

The food, however, was wonderful and Kara tried to always focus on the bright side, which usually included food.

Liam wasted no time to start talking, not even noticing the clear unhappiness of his mother.

“This is my cousin Ruby,” he told Kara, pointing at the girl in question.

Kara smiled kindly at the teenage girl who smiled back.

“Hi,” she said with a little wave.

“And my aunt Sam!” Liam continued.

Kara then looked at the woman, a small rush of panic ran through her. “He talked about you a lot last night,” she offered awkwardly.

“We didn’t really have a chance to properly meet last night,” Sam said as she stood from her chair to stand her hand at Kara over the table, the gesture both formal and threatening, “Samantha Arias.”

“CFO of LuthorCorp,” Kara concluded, almost gasping, standing up and shaking the woman’s hand.

Sam smiled. “Well you do your homework, don’t you?”

Kara shrugged shyly, cheeks flushing as she sits back meekly. “I am a journalist; gotta keep updated on the news. You gave an interview to Lois Lane about women in male-dominated fields last month.”

Sam looked at her rather impressed. “I did,” she agreed.

“It was a really good interview.”

“Indeed,” Lena mumbled at the head of the table, unimpressed.

Ruby seemed to be curious about Kara as well, and her curiosity won over the tension of the table and urged her to make a question.

“What kind of journalist are you?” the girl asked. “We had a dad at school last year who was a sport’s journalist and he talked about going to the World Cup to report on the games,” she added, her voice adding a little excitement at the end of the sentence.

“I’m the kind my boss wants, really,” Kara told her with a little laugh, and Ruby smiled back at her. “I’d like to be an investigative reporter, but I end up writing a lot of things I don’t really like because my boss tells me to, lots of articles that I wouldn’t even read if I didn’t have to.” She made a grimace that had Ruby giggling, and she couldn’t see, but the girl’s laugh had the woman at the head of the table clenching her jaw tight once more. “Though I really like when I get articles about science or interviews with cool people,” she finished with a smile.

“What made you choose journalism?” Ruby asked again.

“That’s actually a very long story that I’m sure you don’t want to hear,” Kara said, somehow charmingly, and it annoyed Lena even more. “I can tell you what I like about it, though,” Kara offered and Ruby nodded. “Well, I believe people deserve to know the truth of things that affect them, so I choose to help get that truth to people.”

“That’s cool!” Ruby exclaimed, and Liam nodded. But Lena was clenching her fist around her fork and the vein in her forehead was pulsing dangerously.

“I like to think so.” Kara glanced over at Liam, who was beaming up at her with his mouth full of waffles and covered with honey that dripped down to his chin, feeling the truth of her own words.

Before Kara could even react to the adorable sight that was Liam with his honey-stained chubby cheeks, Lena was clearing her throat. With one last ugly glare at Kara, one that the blonde actually saw that time and prompted yet another blush, she plastered a smile on her face, what Sam called her ‘mom smile’, and reached for Liam, napkin at hand.

“Here sweetheart,” she said softly, grasping Liam’s chin gently. Wetting a little tip of the cloth in her glass of water, she cleaned Liam’s sticky cheeks. “I’ve told you, you don’t have to eat like the food is going to run away from you.” Her tone was light and there was a hint of teasing in it that had Liam giggling. “You’ve always been like that, even as a baby; never wanted to let go when I fed you, it was like you’d never seen milk before.”

Liam smiled at his mother, letting her rub the last of the honey from his now red cheeks, oblivious to what was happening, but the adults at the table were very aware of the situation, and even Ruby could sense something was odd about Lena’s behavior. Even after she finished cleaning Liam, Lena still lingered her fingers on his cheeks, smiling down at him.

Kara shifted in her chair uncomfortably, she thought Lena Luthor would be above showing off like that, but apparently, she had been wrong. Not for the first time she regretted her terrible decision of arriving at the manor so early, she should have waited off a few more hours, seen what changed in Metropolis since the last time she was there, perhaps catch up with her cousin over breakfast; but deep down she knew she couldn’t really face anyone who knew her, like really knew her, because one look at her and they’d know something was wrong, and Kara was never really good at keeping things from her friends.

“Kara!” Sam exclaimed, taking pity on the blonde woman, glaring at her friend when no one was looking. “That… thing parked outside by the fountain, that’s yours, right?”

Kara was more than thankful for the interruption, although slightly offended by the comment. “You mean my car?”

Sam laughed goodheartedly. “If you wanna call it that.”

Kara grimaced at that, which only prompted more laughter from Sam.

“I’m sorry, is just that, well, it doesn’t really look like something someone like you would own.”

Kara sighed, she was used to the reactions by then. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“So what’s the story behind it? What made you get it?”

“It was a gift, actually,” Kara said. “I used to live with my aunt and uncle in their farm up in Kansas after I left college. They’re old, they needed help around the farm, I wasn’t doing anything really, it’s rather hard to get hired when you finish college about the time most people are getting in, so,” she trailed off with a shrug. “I did some freelancing while I was there, worked as a stringer for a few different places, and then I got offered a position at Blüdhaven Times and they gave me the truck as a going away gift, to thank me for helping them.”

“Well, aren’t you an all-American girl from Kansas,” Sam joked.

Kara turned red. “I guess,” she said awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck. “I actually grew up in California after my parents, uhm, after I was adopted.”

Sam had the decency to wince at her own words. “I’m sorry,” she said, looking like she wanted to take back the last ten seconds.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” Kara said with a shrug and focused back on her food.

Once more they were bathed in silence until Liam decided to start a conversation again.

“You have tattoos?” he screeched, staring at Kara’s arm as she reached for another pancake. “I didn’t see it before.”

“I was wearing long sleeves before,” Kara told him with a smile, extending her arm for him to see it better, only sparing a glance at his mother to see her reacting her best to look like it didn’t affect her.

Liam poked a tiny little star on Kara’s arm. “I like space!”

“Me too,” Kara laughed.

Then the boy looked up at her with his bright blue eyes wide and full of curiosity. “What do they mean?”

“Sometimes a tattoo doesn’t really mean anything, sometimes they just look good,” she staged whispered to him, and he giggled, both missing the glare from the brunette sitting right next to them. “No, but these, they’re very special to me,” Kara said as she looked down at her arm, the several tiny doddle-like space bodies adorning her upper forearm of stars and moons and planets and asteroids and even a small constellation mapped, looked like Kara had drawn them herself (which she did), it was about three inches large and going all around her forearm. “I used to take care of really sick lonely dogs when I lived in the farm with my aunt and uncle, each one of these represents a dog that lived with me.”

The little boy gapped, eyes even wider at the mention of dogs. “But there are so many tattoos!”

Kara laughed lightly. “There were a lot of dogs.”

“Wow! That is so cool!” the boy said dazedly. “But why space?”

Kara shrugged. “I like space.”

“Me too!” Liam exclaimed excitedly, as if it hadn’t been established only a few seconds ago. “It’s where Thor lives!”

“It is,” Kara agreed. “He’s an alien.”

“Mama,” he said, “did you know Kara’s second favorite superhero is Thor?”

Lena’s face screamed forced interest, the kind you can only muster to your own child, with fake glee and masked animosity. “I did not know that,” Lena said back. “That is really cool.”

“You like Thor too,” Liam continued, explaining to Lena the connection.

“It’s not really because of his superpowers,” Sam sniggered in a suggestive way that had Kara blushing, but the children confused, which only worsen when Lena kicked her under the table and she yelped.

“I like him because of his kindness, yes,” Lena continued with an even more forced smiled to Liam.

“Kara said the same thing!” Liam all but gasped in his excitement. “Isn’t it so cool that you like the same superhero?”

Kara was at lost of what to say in reply to that, she couldn’t understand where the little boy was going, and the anger coming off of the mother was unsettling.

But Liam didn’t wait for a reply before talking again. “And Kara has blonde hair and blue eyes like Thor.”

Kara laughed then. “I like to think I look more like Captain Marvel than Thor, actually.”

“Who is Captain Marvel?”

Kara gapped at the boy and gasped exaggeratedly. “Um, she’s only the coolest and most powerful of all the Avengers. She has alien superpowers, she shoots lasers out of her _hands_ , she’s super strong and she can fly.”

“She sounds awesome.”

“She is,” Kara agreed. “She has a cat named Chewie.”

Liam’s jaw dropped. “That’s the best name. Can I like her too?”

Kara laughed. “Yeah, you can like her.”

They both turned away from each other and back to their foods in almost synchronized movements, and Kara was just in time to see Ruby’s eyes widening.

Sam noticed it too and asked Ruby about it. “What is it, honey?”

“Liam and Kara have the same eyes,” she commented innocently.

It was physically impossible for Lena to actually pop a vein, but both adults feared that would be the case when they looked at her; jaw clenched tight, forehead vein pulsing, eyes steely and hand gripping the fork a lot stronger than necessary, Lena Luthor looked scary when she was mad.

With an abrupt movement, Lena pushed her chair and stood up. “I believe we’ve all finished eating, haven’t we?” she announced sternly, sounding scarily like her mother. “Ms. Danvers, if you could follow me, I would like to have a word,” she directed to Kara with an icy tone that gave the blonde goosebumps and stalked out of the dining room.

For a moment everyone was frozen to their spots, too shocked to react, the kids had never seen Lena talk like that before, Kara was terrified of what could happen to her, and Sam just didn’t know how to help her friend. But the second passed and Kara hurried to her feet, following after Lena before she could lose the woman from sight or else she’d get lost; Sam took longer, instructing the children to go to the playroom before heading to where she knew Lena was headed.

  

\---

_“But why you ‘ave to goooo?” the little boy whined, clinging to Lena, and the young mother’s heart broke; deep inside, she felt like him, she felt like whining and crying and saying she didn’t want to leave her baby, even if for a night, but she was the adult, the parent, the newly appointed CEO, she had responsibilities, even if it hurt._

_“I have to go,” she said calmly, nuzzling his temple gently with her nose, she caught a whiff of his baby shampoo mixed the smell that was entirely his and it made it all the harder, “because I’m the boss now. Which means I have to make sure everyone is doing what they were told.”_

_“Like a mama?” Liam asked, lifting his head from her shoulder to look at her with his big blue eyes._

_Lena smiled. “Yes, kind of like a mama. And if people don’t do what they are told, or if they do something they shouldn’t, I’m gonna have to ground them.”_

_“Buut need you, mama,” he told her, way too firmly for a grumpy two-and-a-half-year-old on the verge of tears._

_“I’m sorry, my love, but a lot of people need me now too.”_

_“Need you more.”_

_“I know, Lilo, and you’ll always have me. But right now, I have to go,” she told him, her tone final and even Liam understood it, letting his head drop back to her shoulder. “It will be quick, only three sleeps and I’ll be back, I promise.”_

_“If I do two sleeps affer lunch,” he lost his breath mid-sentence and took a huge gulp of air to finish, “you come back fastest?” he asked earnestly._

_Lena smiled at his request. “You clever monkey,” she said, blowing a raspberry on his cheek. “I mean night sleeps, baby. Three nights and mama will be right back, in time to have lunch with you, my most favorite little man.”_

_“Das too long,” he said grumpily, and buried his face in her neck._

_“You’ll stay with Auntie Sam. You love your auntie Sam.”_

_“No! Only luv you.” He tightened his arms around her neck, almost painfully, and she swore she could practically feel the furrow in his brow against her skin._

_She hated it, truly. Since Lex’s breakdown she had to step up as the heir of LuthorCorp and take over, and it was so much more than she ever prepared for, that wasn’t meant for her, she wasn’t supposed to run the family business, all she ever wanted was to run her own lab creating new technologies to make people’s lives easier, and to be with her son, to be a good mother to Liam; but she had less and less time to spend with him as the duties of LuthorCorp unraveled in her lap. She promised herself she would make more time for him, but she’d been letting herself and her son down for the past few months; and having to go to Japan to solve contracts could not have come at a worse time._

_“C’mon now, Lilo, don’t be like that,” she said, trying to get his arms to stop clutching her neck. “I know you’re sad, I don’t like it either, but acting out will just make us more upset.”_

_“I am uh’set,” he sniffed._

_Lena had to chuckle. “I know, love, I am too. But let’s take a deep breath okay?”_

_Liam nodded and let go of Lena’s neck, pulling away enough for her to look at him. She coached him into taking a few deep breaths. The little boy took large gulps of air like he was preparing to go swimming, and Lena had to control herself not to laugh, but it worked in helping him calm down._

_“Do you feel better?”_

_“No!”_

_Lena sighed. “Okay,” she told him. “You have that right.”_

_“Can I go wif you?”_

_“Baby, if I could take you, I would,” she promised. “But I will be so busy working the entire time, I wouldn’t have time to spend with you, and it would be so boring. Here you can stay in your room, in your bed, with your auntie Sam watching you, and Ruby too, and you’ll have all your toys and your dinosaurs and your animals…”_

_“But miss you,” Liam whined insistently._

_“I’ll miss you too, baby, so so much, more than my heart can take.”_

_“Pomise?”_

_Lena laughed. “I promise to miss you every second of every day.”_

_“Me too.”_

_“I love you.”_

_“How much?”_

_“Sooooooo much.”_

_“La’ger than this?” he asked throwing his arms opened wide, and she was only able to keep him steady in her arms because she had the experience to know to hold his back._

_“Larger.”_

_“La’ger than a bear?_

_“So much larger.”_

_“La’ger than a whale?”_

_“Whale doesn’t even come close.”_

_“La’ger than a dino?”_

_“Larger than any dinosaur and the entire planet.”_

_“La’ger than then sun?”_

_Lena grinned and kissed his nose. “Larger than all the suns, my love,” she whispered to him._

_“Luv you too.”_

\---

  

Lena had always been Liam’s ‘most favoritest person ever’, in his words, so now that his entire attention was on the blonde woman like she was some kind of superhero, she couldn’t help but feel jealous, and she was big enough to admit it… to herself, she would never utter the words out loud though.

Even though, Lena had thought she could take it, that she was better than this, stronger; but hearing Ruby making the connection Kara had made the night before, the connection Lena had refused to see, it made her snap. She couldn’t take it after all.

As she reached her office, she pushed the urge to down a glass of Scotch before confronting Kara, it was too early in the morning for it, she’d just have to deal with all of this in the mature way.

Lena turned around in front of her desk, leaning against it as she watched the door with her arms crossed, waiting for the woman who managed to mess up her life in less than 24 hours to step inside.

Kara looked skittish, like a frightened little girl unsure of what to do, much like Lena felt inside, but no one could ever tell with the way her jaw was set tight and her eyes turned cold; she’d learn a long time ago to never show weakness in stressful situations, she was a Luthor after all.

From where she was Lena could see Kara wringing her hands next to her body much like Liam did when he was nervous, covering her thumbs with her long fingers and never letting them still; it somehow only made Lena angrier.

“What exactly do you expect to get out of this, Ms. Danvers?” Lena asked sternly.

“Ah-I… what?” Kara stuttered confused.

“I asked you to come back here so we could talk, discuss our situation calmly before making any decisions with hotheads,” Lena said slowly, irritation sipping out of her. “And instead you decided to show up during breakfast and proceeded to bragger in front of my son, like some sort of hero.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Oh, drop the act,” Lena scoffed. “I’m not gonna fall for your Bambi eyes, so don’t even try it.” She waved a hand dismissively at the blonde woman. She barely registered Sam entering the office. “I’m asking you a simple question,” she started again, “what do you want? What is your goal with my son?”

Kara frowned. “I told you, I promised I’d spend some time with him, that’s all I want.”

“But why?” Lena insisted, losing her patience and raising her voice slightly. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I have rights!” Kara snapped.

Lena laughed sarcastically. “You have what now?”

“I have rights,” Kara repeated forcefully. “I am his-”

“You are nothing!” Lena cut her off angrily. “You are some random person my son picked out on the street. What, you think you’re a parent or something because of what a medical file says? A file, mind you, you claim to have known nothing about until last night. You never changed a diaper, you never stayed up all night taking care of a fever or an upset stomach, you never tucked him in or told him a bedtime story. You are nothing!”

Kara was dumbfounded, as if Lena had struck her. She didn’t have a comeback to that, and she was too shocked to even come up with something.

“I want you out of my house,” Lena continued. “You can either find the way to show yourself out or I’ll have security throw you out; your choice.”

“I…” Kara tried, but words didn’t come to her, instead she just let her head hang in submission and nodded. “I’ll see myself out,” she said softly and stepped around Sam to get out of the office.

Lena let out a deep gulp of air, letting her shoulders sag once Kara was out of sight.

Sam stepped closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You alright, honey?”

Lena shook her head and sighed. “I will be, as soon as this woman is out of my house.”

Kara didn’t reach the end of the hall, however. Just as Lena was starting to relax, she heard the voice of her son.

“Kara! Are you leaving already? But I didn’t get to show you my room!”

From where Lena stood at the door of her office, she could see the back of Liam’s head, and Kara’s face; she shot daggers at the woman, which made the blonde wince, but then Liam was turning to her and she was plastering a smile on her face.

“Mama!”

“Yes, my love,” Lena said calmly.

“Can Kara see my room?” He asked, looking at her eagerly with those big blue eyes she could never really say no to.

Those eyes made Lena almost forget how angry she was at the blonde and how much she didn’t want the woman in her house. Almost. “Kara needs to go, love,” Lena said sweetly, throwing a pointed glare at the woman.

“Yeah, yeah, I forgot I have a really important article to write for work, and I have to go… work on it.”

Liam pouted, and Lena could feel her resolve withering.

“Please. It will be really quick,” the little boy begged. “I want to show her my robot.”

“Fine,” Lena heard herself saying. “But just for a little bit, and then Kara has to go.”

Liam squealed in excitement and grabbed Kara by the hand as he dashed towards the stairs that led to his room, leaving Kara to scramble after him.

“You have a robot?” Lena heard Kara ask, trying to make conversation.

“I built a robot,” Liam explained cheerfully. “With my mama,” he added proudly.

“That’s so cool,” the blonde woman said.

“You know, for such a badass fearless businesswoman,” Sam said to her, “you’re really soft.”

Lena simply rolled her eyes at her friend and followed towards Liam’s room.

\------

 

Kara let the little boy drag her around the halls into the most massive child’s bedroom she had ever seen in her entire life; she could probably fit her entire flat in that room, there was even a sitting area, with a large sofa, a bookcase, a short desk, and a small table where a nice chess set was set up. The room itself looked like a regular child’s bedroom on steroids.

The walls a smoky combination of several hues of blue and green like a nebula, with countless little colorful dots representing stars and other space bodies. There were toys all over, on the dresser by one side of the room, and on shelves on the wall, and on the large bed made with Star Wars sheets; superheroes, and dinosaurs and animals and spaceships and little cars and trainsets and stuffed toys and Lego constructions, all neatly organized like on display.

“This is the Millennium Falcon mama and I built,” the boy announced, holding a Lego construction so big he could barely lift it. “And this is my Euoplocephalus which is my favorite dinosaur, it was one of the largest herbivorous ankylosaurian, which are dinosaurs that have spikes, and here’s my favorite dragon that I own, she can’t spit fire, mama said holding fire would make a dragon too heavy to fly, and I think flying is cooler,” he showed her toy after toy around the room, speaking fast and animatedly, so much that at some point Kara got lost, until he took her hand to lead her to where he wanted.

“And here is the robot we built, my mama and I,” he told her, beyond himself with excitement and something resembling pride in his voice. It was a cylindrical shaped electronic piece of junk, as tall as the boy’s knees, full of wires and led lights and gears and boards like it was made with pieces of computers and home appliances alike. “I call it LMX360!” He pressed a button somewhere and the robot came to life in a cacophony of beeps and lights, then Liam took a tablet from his desk, pressed a few times and then slid his finger along the screen and the robot span around a few times before moving around. “It’s remote controlled.”

“Wow,” Kara all but gasped. “You built that? That’s impressive.”

Liam nodded. “Mama did most of the work, but I helped a lot, didn’t I mama?”

Kara was startled when the warm voice of the woman who had been so cold to her minutes ago came from behind her, and she wondered since when had the woman been there watching them.

“You _did_ ,” Lena said with a smile, looking fondly at her son. “Best assistant I’ve ever had.”

Liam’s smile seemed to almost split his face in half. “It doesn’t do much,” he continued explaining, “but it has a camera and I can go around the entire house without leaving my room… well, as long as I don’t drive it down the stairs.” He giggled. “We’re going to make a smaller one some time.”

“It’s really cool,” Kara offered.

“Isn’t it?” the boy exclaimed. He turned off the robot and put down the tablet. “But not as cool as this one that mama built for me,” he said, going towards the small table with the chess set, only then did Kara notice the weird thing that was propped up on the table, on one side of the chess board. It looked somewhat like a hand-held video camera propped on two tripods, with an articulated arm coming from the body, with a triple pincer as a hand. It was aimed at the chess board as if watching the board. “I call it LN2000. It plays chess with me.”

“It plays chess?” Kara asked confused.

“Yeah.” Liam nodded. “Look.” He leaned forward to touch the small device and it turned on with a sound of gears turning and clicked its pincers a few times. The boy moved a piece on the board and the device’s long arm unfolded towards a piece, grabbed it with its pincers and placed it in a different square on the board. Liam moved another piece on the board, and the robot took the queen and moved it diagonally across the board, the robot clicked its pincers again and a robotic version of Lena’s voice came from the robot saying ‘checkmate’ after less than a minute. Liam looked excitedly up at Kara. “See?”

Kara didn’t even try to hide her surprise. “That’s really impressive.”

“It has a supercomputer that plays chess, and the camera watches the board, so it can move the pieces around,” Liam explained as he and the robot set the board back again. “I’m not that bad, though, I just wanted to show you that it can really play,” he told her. “Do you want to try?”

“I, uhm,” Kara started, but she didn’t even need to as Lena’s voice was already answering for her.

“Kara needs to go, love,” the mother said. “I told you.”

“Oh,” he let out disappointed, looking down at the board, but then he looked up at Kara, his big blue eyes full of hope. “Maybe some other time?”

“Uhm, sure,” Kara said awkwardly, hyper-aware of the woman behind her.

“Ms. Danvers, I believe you can find your way out from here,” Lena said, sounding again like a businesswoman on a meeting.

“Yes, yes, I can,” Kara agreed. “Well, it was really nice to meet you, Liam,” she said to the boy.

Liam got up and threw himself at Kara once again, and this time she was already expecting it and didn’t stumble back as the boy hugged her waist.

“I really liked meeting you, Kara,” he told her.

Without even thinking it, Kara ran a hand on the boy’s soft hair. “Bye, buddy.”

“Bye.”

When Kara turned around, green eyes were staring daggers at her, and it made her blood run cold for a second. She couldn’t get out of that house fast enough. She couldn’t get out of that city fast enough. She just drove out of the manor and straight into the road back to Blüdhaven, perhaps the three-hour drive would help her feel less overwhelmed by everything that happened in that house.

\-------

 

Lena had been so focused on Kara and making sure the woman was out of her house, that she forgot to check on her son, something that was just completely uncharacteristic of her. So when she walked back to the bedroom to find a gloomy little boy, she was alarmed.

“Lilo,” Lena said softly as she lowered herself next to the boy who was sat on the floor miserably tugging on his rubber bracelet, rubbing his back soothingly. “What’s wrong, my love.”

The boy looked up at her with slightly red-rimmed eyes and pouty lips. “I wanted Kara to stay longer,” he told her, sadly. “She promised she’d spend time with me when she brought me home, but she didn’t stay all that long.”

A wave of guilt passed over Lena, it was her fault, she drove Kara away, she made her baby sad.

“Do you think she didn’t like me?” he asked, his voice small. “That she left because she didn’t like me?”

“Oh my love,” Lena cooed, pulling the boy to her lap as she adjusted herself on the floor. “It is impossible not to like you, Lilo,” she assured him. “Kara was just very busy, and she had to go.”

“You’re busy and you always have time for me,” he argued, looking eagerly at her.

It caught Lena by surprise. There she was thinking Liam’s need to find Kara had to do with her limited time to be with him, and yet the boy didn’t even seem to think of that problem.

“I always have time for you,” Lena agreed. She took his face in her hands gently and held with gorgeous blue eyes. “Because you are the most important person in my life. You’re the love of my life, Lilo.” Lena pressed a kiss to his forehead, leaving a ghost of red lipstick on his skin. “You just met Kara, she has an entire life that you don’t know about. She lives in another state. Sometimes adults have compromises they can’t cancel. You can’t just expect people to not be busy just because you want to spend time with them.”

Liam sniffed. “I didn’t think. I just wanted to meet her.”

“I know, my love. I know.” Lena kept rubbing circles on his back. “It’s okay.”

Lena gave him a little time to process it all before speaking again.

“Why don’t we go downstairs and bake some cookies for us and Ruby and aunty Sam, huh?”

With one little shuddery sob, Liam looked at Lena, his eyes impossibly bluer through the tears. “With rainbow sprinkles?”

Lena grinned. “Yes. With rainbow sprinkles.”

\-------

 

A three turned five-hour drive did not actually do much to make Kara less overwhelmed.

In fact, being stuck in her car for five hours, finally having the actual time to process everything with the argument with Lena on top, only made her more overwhelmed.

How was she supposed to process the fact that the cutest little boy she had ever seen was somehow her biological son with another woman, a woman who was a billionaire and apparently had been stalking her for the past nine years and whom she already managed to enrage with only a couple of short interactions; not to mention the part where her genetic material was stolen to make said little boy. It was a lot to take in.

Kara had never been particularly claustrophobic, but her car felt very constricting at that moment. She felt more than a little relieved when she finally parked, running up the stairs as fast as she could to get to the safety of her home.

Kara collapsed against the front door, lost in thought.

She didn’t know how to express the instant pull she felt towards Liam, it was as if she had imprinted on the boy the moment she realized he was telling the truth, the moment she truly looked him in the eyes, and that feeling was too much for her to handle, especially now that she was back home and away from the boy enough that she could think properly. If she was being honest, she’d admit she was freaking out from the moment that little boy showed up, but even more so at how excited he was to have her back in his home to see him and his room. If prompted she’d probably blame Lena for kicking her out of the house, but the truth was that she was thankful for an excuse to bolt out of there.

Kara didn’t know how long she stayed that way, sat with her back against the front door, but she did eventually get up, only to fix herself a glass of the strongest alcohol she could find in the apartment.

As she let the scotch burn her throat, Kara laughed to herself. “Day drinking, Kara,” she thought out loud. “What would Alex think of this?” Kara wasn’t very much of a drinker in general, even the very scotch she was drinking at that moment had been something Alex bought the last time she visited, two years prior, and Kara never got around to actually drinking it again. At the thought of her sister, Kara took a sharp breath. “What will Alex think of all of this? How will I even tell her?”

She downed the rest of the drink, deciding it wasn’t really helping. It was time for Kara’s own activity of dealing with things: stress baking.

 

“Why does it smell like a bakery caught on fire in here?” Dick asked as he walked into Kara’s apartment. He paused as soon as he caught a look at the mountain of cookies currently cooling off on Kara’s kitchen counter.

“Nothing’s on fire,” Kara argued, trying to discreetly hide the burnt dish towel in her hands.

“What the hell, Kar?” he asked, walking towards the blonde who was covered in baking ingredients.

“I’m just baking,” Kara said defensively.

“You never ‘just bake’,” he argued.

Kara scoffed. “Of course I do, I bake all the time.”

“So this has nothing to do with why you called me last night at 1 am?”

“Absolutely not!” Kara said, trying to sound convincing.

Dick glared at her. “You are absolutely the worst liar in the world.” He reached the kitchen and grabbed a cookie. “But at least your baking skills are improving,” he said with his mouth full.

Kara hit the man in the arm with the dish towel. “Hey! You don’t get to eat my cookies if you are going to defame me.”

He raised hands in surrender. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Why are you here anyways?”

“Well, you sounded like you needed to talk, and I thought I would come back sooner. But I can go if you want.”

“Wait, no,” Kara said, grasping at the arm of his jacket. “Sorry, I’m stressed.”

“I noticed,” Dick laughed. “Anything you want to share?”

Kara sighed. “Could I just get a hug? No questions asked?”

The man looked softly at his friend and opened his arms for Kara to burrow herself into his chest.

“There’s a lot right now, Dick. Just so much.”

“It’s okay, Kara. It’ll be fine. Whatever it is, I’m here for you.”

“I know. Thank you.”

“You want me to distract you by ordering pizza and pot stickers and watching some lame movie on Netflix with you?”

Kara smiled against her friend’s shirt. “I’d love that.” But then she frowned. “Isn’t it a bit early to order pizza, though?”

“Hun, it’s 9 pm.”

“Really?”

“How long have you been baking for?”

“Like, more than five hours…”

“Wow, okay, we need to bring out the big guns,” stepping away from Kara and removing his jacket before rolling up his sleeves. “We’re watching musicals!” he announced seriously, and all Kara did was smile.

“I love you,” Kara sighed thankfully.

Dick grinned at her as he unlocked his phone. “I know.”

An hour later found them cuddled up on Kara’s couch with her throw blanket wrapped around them, watching Grease and each with their own carton of ice cream, pizza, and pot stickers remains on her coffee table.

“Dick,” Kara said softly, stabbing her ice cream with her spoon.

“Yeah?”

“I think I should go home for a while.”

Dick frowned. “Kar, you know we’re in your apartment, right?”

“Not that home.”

It took a while for the man to understand what she meant.

“OH!” he exclaimed when realization dawned on him. “That serious?”

“I don’t think anything in my life has ever been this serious,” Kara told him.

“Damn, that says a lot.”

“Yeah,” Kara agreed. “And I really want to tell you, I just feel like I need to tell Alex and Eliza first.”

Dick nodded. “Alright, I respect that. But does it have anything to do with those OMAC labs?”

“I think so. What did you find?”

Dick leaned forward to place his ice cream carton on the coffee table. “OMAC was owned by the Luthors, that’s the connection to Cadmus. It took a lot of digging to find anything about it, at first it was like it didn’t really exist. It did mostly lab exams, blood tests, checkups… and transfusions. It closed down when Lex Luthor was hospitalized, but Kara, this was buried so deep, it doesn’t sit right that a lab would go to so many lengths to hide these things. Not to mention Cadmus, why would they need somewhere else to do lab exams when they have their own labs?”

There was a deep frown on Kara’s forehead as she took it in. This whole story was just getting weirder and weirder. “I don’t know, Dick,” she sighed. “I really don’t know.”

 

* * *

 

  

In her 6 years of working for the Blüdhaven Times, Kara Danvers had only requested time off once to attend her sister’s wedding. Her boss liked her enough that he’d grant her leave for most of the Jewish holidays even without her asking, which she’d usually tried to refuse, and she only needed a sick leave one time when she had strep throat.

So when she asked for immediate leave due to ‘personal problems’, half expecting to be refused, she was rather surprised when her boss actually granted her with her request. A full week off, she didn’t even wait to see if it was a joke, she just turned off the phone and booked the first flight to California.

Despite her thinking about it the night before and telling Dick, it was a spontaneous decision. Or as spontaneous as Kara Danvers could be. She hadn’t been home in a while, but she a had a system that she always used to prepare for her travels, even last-minute flights like that. Though she did not call ahead. Which explained the surprised expression on her mother’s face upon opening the door.

“Kara, sweetie, is everything alright?” Eliza asked concerned, pulling Kara into her arms.

Kara let herself fall into the comfort of the motherly hug, not even bothering to lie. “I just needed to see you.”

“Let’s get you inside, dear.”

Not long after, Kara sat in the kitchen where she grew up for most of her formative years with a mug of tea in her hands, across from a very alarmed mother.

“There’s no funeral,” she tried to joke, but her mother didn’t appreciate that.

“Can you blame me for worrying?” Eliza all but scolded her. “You haven’t been home in two years-”

“I’m sorry about that,” Kara apologized with red ears, but Eliza wasn’t done yet.

“Yom Kippur and your birthday were both last week, and yet you show up now out of nowhere, looking worse than that time you crashed Jeremiah’s old car and was afraid to tell me. It’s only natural that I get concerned; I’m a mother.”

Kara could only shrug, feeling like a child being scolded, exactly like the time she crashed Jeremiah’s car when she was learning how to drive after taking it without permission. “I just really needed to see you,” she sighed tiredly.

“Is everything okay, honey?” Eliza asked again, but softer this time.

“Not really, mom.”

That’s when Eliza knew it was serious, Kara didn’t usually call Eliza ‘mom’ unless she was in a lot of distress.

Eliza was really concerned now. “Kara, talk to me,” she pleaded. “What is going on?”

“I don’t know where to start,” Kara admitted.

“Are you in trouble, honey?”

Kara shook her head. “Not exactly. It’s… it’s, uhm, it’s more complicated than that.”

“If you wanted me to not worry, you’re not doing a great job at that.”

“It’s not… necessarily bad,” Kara said trying to be reassuring, but Eliza’s face didn’t change. “I have a son,” she blurted then.

“WHAT?!”

“I mean, sort of… I just… it’s really… dammit…” Kara sighed and put her hands on her face, pressing into her eyes with the heels of her hands.

“Kara Linda Danvers if you hid a pregnancy from me, I swear to G-”

“No, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s… more complicated than that,” she said feeling lame.

Eliza looked at her expectantly. “Well, go on,” she said.

“So, I… Friday, this little boy showed up at my door saying he was my son, and… he has my father’s eyes, mom.”

“Oh sweetie,” Eliza said softly, rubbing Kara’s arms comfortingly. “How could this happen?”

Kara groaned. “I don’t know. Apparently, Cadmus got my DNA somehow and his mother used it to, well… make him.”

“His mother?” Eliza parroted.

“Yup. Same-sex pregnancy, courtesy of Cadmus,” Kara explained.

“You met her?”

Kara nodded. “She’s, well, she sure is something. Very obstinate. Kind of scary… I took him home, and somehow I managed to mess it up and make her hate me in less than ten minutes. I’m handling this stellarly.” She dropped her face into her hands again. “I don’t know what to do. He wants… something, out of me, and I don’t know if I can give it, and she probably doesn’t want to see me ever again, I don’t know if I have any… I feel like I should… I don’t know if I can…I just don’t know what to do, mom,” Kara sobbed.

“Oh sweetie,” Eliza said as she got up to rub Kara’s back soothingly, and Kara collapsed on her open arms, burying her face on the older woman’s neck. “This sure is a lot to take in, and so fast; most people have nine months to prepare for something like this.”

Kara let out a wet laugh.

“It’s a complicated situation, and it involves a child, which makes anything trickier, but this is something you have to figure out on your own, I can’t tell you what to do,” Eliza told her after a while. “But I promise you I’m here for you no matter what, okay?”

Kara nodded against Eliza’s shoulder, wetting the woman’s shirt.

\-------

 

Alex Danvers considered herself as someone who could handle herself pretty well in complicated situations; she was a problem solver, she liked fixing things. Which was why she went to med school, and how she became chief resident back in her residency days; now Alex was a very good neurosurgeon due to her knack for solving everything that came her way.

Everything but her own personal life.

She arrived home to an empty house, as she already suspected, and sighed in relief.

Her wife Maggie had started working late hours at the police station a few months back, and with her long hours at the hospital, they didn’t see much of each other.

And it was all by design.

Kicking her shoes off she made a beeline to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine and then threw herself on the couch.

Alex loved her wife, she truly did, but whenever they spent too long together at home without anything to distract them, they ended up fighting, and she would end up crying; she didn’t want to fight with Maggie again, didn’t have the energy to do so. So her best option was to avoid her. Alex was practically begging for surgeries, begging for any reason not to go home, just like she knew Maggie was doing the same at the station.

She knew she couldn’t keep living like this, she had to do something about this mess of a situation, but she just didn’t have the guts to do anything about it.

Her relief was short lived when she heard the sound of keys jingling at the door, her throat filled with dread that overpowered the taste of wine.

Maggie took pause at the door when she saw Alex.

“Oh, I, uhm, I thought you were still at the hospital,” the short woman said unsure, fumbling with her keys.

“Surgery was canceled,” Alex explained simply. She finished the rest of wine in her glass and gestured at the bottle as she leaned over to refill her glass. “You want some? I just opened that bottle Kara sent for my birthday.”

There was a tense moment in the air as Maggie considered Alex’s offer. It was clear that Alex was trying to extent an olive branch, one that Maggie had refused many times in the last few months, but wasn’t she as tired of fighting as Alex was? It was a dangerous offer, though, because Alex tended to blow out when she was drunk. She could hold her liquor pretty well, but even she had a limit, one that she admitted to crossing more often than not lately; but when drinking alone the end result was less screaming her frustrations out and more crying in the shower.

Maggie eyed the bottle carefully, probably trying to estimate how much Alex had drunk already; it was only her second glass, they were still in safe territory.

Maggie nodded, her shoulders visibly relaxing as she dropped her bags and discarded her shoes and jacket. “Sure, that sounds nice.” She grabbed a glass in the kitchen and walked carefully to the couch, sitting as far away from Alex as possible without being too rude. “So how was work?” Maggie asked carefully as Alex filled her glass.

Alex shrugged. “Quite boring, really. A few clipped aneurysms, a few consults, rounds… Nothing too exciting. You?”

Maggie took a sip of the wine before answering. “Oh, you know, same as always. Lot’s of paperwork, easy cases, nothing fun.”

“Right,” Alex said, not knowing how to keep the conversation. It used to be so easy to talk to Maggie, she has been her best friend once, but now they were as good as strangers. Silence fell over them as they sipped the wine, avoiding looking at each other. “Did you like the wine?” Alex asked once the silence became too overwhelming.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s good wine.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed lamely. “Kara is learning to pick them.”

“Took her long enough.”

The conversation died awkwardly in the air, both dreading the next words that would be said.

Lucky for them, they didn’t have to think of anything else to talk about, because not long after Alex’s phone was ringing.

“It’s my mom,” Alex said before answering. “Hey, mom. Yeah, I’m home. Is everything okay? Kara? What happened? Okay, I’m on my way. No, I’m not tired, I got some sleep at work, I’m good to drive, promise. I can be there in less than two hours. See you then, love you.” Alex turned off her phone and looked over at Maggie, who inevitably had heard her end of the conversation. “Kara needs me,” she explained unnecessarily.

“Is she okay?” Maggie asked and Alex heard genuine concern on her voice.

Alex got up to put her glass on the sink. “I don’t really know, mom said it’s serious, but nothing physical or anything. But she said Kara really needs me there.” She was so focused on her mother’s words and on the glass in her hand she didn’t notice Maggie was behind her until a hand touched her back gently; she had to concentrate not to jump, startled at the now foreign contact.

“You can leave it there, I’ll clean,” Maggie offered.

Alex nodded and rounded Maggie to leave the kitchen. With a second thought, she came back, Maggie was still staring at the sink. “I don’t think I’ll be back until tomorrow,” she informed.

Maggie nodded. “Drive safe, okay?”

“Sure.”

Alex lingered there for a second, both looking at the other expectantly, looking like they wanted to say something, but eventually decided against it. She left with unsaid words heavy on her tongue, tugging her jacket around herself to get rid of the feeling of inadequacy. She knew her mother wouldn’t like it when she arrived on her bike, but it was faster, and she sounded urgent.

\-------

 

“Did you brush your teeth, my love?”

Liam bared his teeth to Lena to show her that he did, the little growl along with the still growing front teeth making her smile.

“Very well, my little tiger,” she laughed. “Ready for bed?” Liam nodded and stepped into the open arms of his mother for a tight hug. “I love you, Lilo. Larger than all the suns,” Lena whispered in his hair.

“Love you too, mama.”

“Alright, bed, now,” she instructed, slapping his butt playfully, which made him giggle.

He slipped inside his covers, and she was right there handing him his stuffed animal of the week, a tiger, and tucking him in.

“Do tigers lose their teeth?” the boy asked curiously.

Lena smiled down at him. “They do actually, but not like us,” she told him. “You see, tigers need their teeth to defend themselves in the wild and eat, and they don’t exactly have anyone to make them soup,” she joked, tickling him a little, making him laugh and squeal. “So their adult teeth grow behind the milk teeth and then push the milk teeth out when they’re large enough.”

“You’d have to use braces for that,” Liam said, remembering his school friend that had to wear braces because his new teeth grew out too far back in his mouth.

Lena grinned. “Could you imagine a tiger with braces on?”

Liam laughed again. “That’d look silly.”

“It _would_ ,” Lena agreed with a laugh of her own. “Now, what book do you want to read today?”

“Can we read Le Petit Prince again?”

Lena had made sure to immerse Liam to as many languages as possible as early as possible, make it easier for him to learn more, and one of the means for that was in his nighttime readings, The Little Prince being one of his favorites because it had versions in all the languages he knew.

“Of course we can,” Lena said and got up to pick up the book from his shelf.

“Mama?” Liam asked as she still had her back to him.

“Yes, my love?”

“Do I still have to be grounded even if I’m sad?”

Lena froze in her search for the book. She had noticed the boy had been gloomy since Kara’s visit and its abrupt ending, not even his favorite cookies managed to better his mood for long, but he had managed to go through the entire rest of the weekend without bringing it up.

Lena took a deep breath and grabbed the book, turning around to face him again.

“You know,” she said, “people tend to be sad when they’re grounded.”

“But what if it’s a different reason to be sad,” he insisted.

Lena smiled kindly at him as she sat back on the back and brushed his hair back. “Actions have consequences, my love,” she told him. “And they do not go away just because you’re sad.”

“What if I’m really sorry?”

Lena exhaled through her nose a soft breathy laugh. “Even so. You can use this time to think about how sorry you feel, so that you never do anything like that ever again.”

Liam nodded, lips pouting a little, brows furrowed, not happy with the answer, but not about to argue it. He took a long, desolated breath that would have Lena laughing if she didn’t know what was coming.

“Do you think Kara will come back?” he asked then.

“I don’t know, Lilo,” she told him honestly. “But know this: whether she comes back or not, is not on you, okay? Whatever decision she makes is about her own feelings and adult problems, and it’s not your fault if she doesn’t, you didn’t do anything wrong there. If she doesn’t come back, it doesn’t mean she has any bad feelings towards you. Grownups are just very complicated sometimes,” she told him. The hint of guilt stabbing the end on her stomach was a constant; if Kara didn’t come back, it would be on her for scaring the girl off, and even if not, that’d be what she’d believe.

Liam just twisted his lips in dismay, he didn’t have a response to that.

“Just remember that I love you very much, and even when you get tired of me, you’re stuck with me,” Lena added with a smile, trying to cheer him up.

He didn’t turn into a ray of sunshine, but his lips did turn up a little bit into a small smile.

“Now give me a little bit of space so we can read together.”

Liam scooted to the side to allow her to sit next to him and immediately curled up against her.

Lena carded her fingers through Liam’s hair as they read together, thinking over this whole situation. She didn’t really know what to do. How could she protect her son from pain, when she was the cause of it?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Help me validate my sense of self-worth by leaving a comment :D
> 
> As you probably know by now, my tumblr is @myheartisbro-ken and it's always open for whatever question or conversation starter you might have.
> 
> Until next time, I'll try not to take so long again, but no promises xoxo


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